Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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41. To ask the Minister for Social Protection to set out the number of children who were refused or discontinued child benefit this year and last year for not being in full-time education broken down by age 16 and 17 years respectively. [40564/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Child benefit is a universal payment that assists parents with the cost of raising children and contributes towards alleviating child poverty. The estimated expenditure on child benefit in 2014 is around €1.9 billion and it is currently paid to around 613,000 families in respect of some 1.17 million children.

Child benefit is paid up to and including the month of the child’s 16^thbirthday and continues to the month of the 18^thbirthday provided the child is in full-time education. In order for payment to continue after the age of 16, it is necessary for the school to certify that the child is in full-time education and will be until the age of 18.

The Department does not hold a record on the number of children where child benefit isdiscontinued at age 16 or 17 due to them not being in full-time education. The number of claims refused on this basis would be very small, but there would also be a number of cases where parents do no claim child benefit as they know that continuing in education is a qualifying factor.