Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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188. To ask the Minister for Social Protection his views on extending the cut-off for entitlement to children's allowance to allow children who turn 18 years of age who are still in secondary education to continue to receive the children's allowance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20951/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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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 623,000 families in respect of some 1.2 million children, with an estimated expenditure of over €2 billion in 2017.

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.

Extending the cut off for entitlement to allow Child Benefit to be paid in respect of those children who turn 18 year old and are still in secondary education would not be a targeted approach given the universality of Child Benefit. The adoption of such a proposal would have significant cost implications and would have to be considered in an overall budgetary context.

Families on low incomes can avail of a number of 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).

I am satisfied 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.