Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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490. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the cost of expanding the child benefit payment to include 18 year olds that are still in full time secondary education; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52871/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, 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 627,318 families in respect of some 1.2 million children, with an estimated expenditure of more than €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.

The current estimated annual cost of extending the upper age limit for payment for those persons who are 18 years and under 19 years of age and in secondary school, based on figures from the Department of Education and Skills, is over €62 million.

Extending Child Benefit entitlement to parents of full time students in second level education to include 18 year olds would not be a targeted approach given the universality of Child Benefit. The adoption of such a proposal 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;

- the working family payment (formerly Family Income Supplement) 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).

As part of the measures under Budget 2018, the qualified child payment which is paid each week to families with children will increase from €29.80 to €31.80 for each child. This is an increase of 6.7%, and will benefit over 400,000 children.

The Working Family Payment earnings thresholds were increased by €10 per week for families with up to three children. This will particularly benefit low-income working families.

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