Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

171. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the cost of increasing the age at which child benefit is paid to cover children in full-time education up to 19, 20, 21 and 22 years of age respectively; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17787/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Child Benefit is a monthly payment made to families with children in respect of all qualified children up to the age of 16 years. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children up to their 18th birthday who are in full-time education, or who have a disability.

Child Benefit is currently paid to around 624,000 families in respect of some 1.2 million children, with an estimated expenditure in the order of over €2 billion in 2016. Child Benefit is an important source of income for all families and in Budget 2016 the Government increased Child Benefit by €5 per month, at a cost of €72 million.

Budget 2009 reduced the age for eligibility for Child Benefit from 19 years to less than 18 years. A value for money review of child income supports, published by the Department of Social Protection in 2010, found that the participation pattern of children in education supports the current age limit for Child Benefit.

Families on low incomes can avail of a number of provisions to social welfare schemes that support children in full-time education until the age of 22, including:

- qualified child increases (IQCs) with primary social welfare payments;

- family income supplement (FIS) for low-paid employees with children;

- the back to school clothing and footwear allowance for low income families (paid at the full-time second level education rate).

These schemes provide targeted assistance that is directly linked with household income and thereby supports low-income families with older children participating in full-time education.

The estimated annual costs of extending the upper age limits for payment for those in all full time education settings, based on figures from the Department of Education and Skills are as follows:-

Up to 19 years in the region of €147.8 million

Up to 20 years in the region of €205.8 million

It is not possible to disaggregate the figures for 21 year olds and 22 year olds as the Department of Education and Skills only capture the numbers of all people in education age 21 and over.

Any changes to the eligibility criteria for Child Benefit have to be considered in an overall budgetary context.