Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Child Benefit is a universal monthly payment made to families with children up to the age of 16 years. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children until their eighteenth birthday who are in full-time education, or who have a disability.

In Budget 2024, the Government decided to extend the payment of Child Benefit to 18-year-olds who are in full-time education or have a disability. This was one of my key priorities in the Budget.

This is a significant change to the Child Benefit scheme. It requires technical and operational changes before implementation.

We had originally provided that the change would take effect from September this year. However, I am very pleased that we are now able to bring this important change in from an earlier date. The legislation required to do that was enacted last month. As a result, the measure will be brought in from the first of May. In the region of 60,000 children are expected to benefit from this measure annually. The additional estimated cost of bringing the commencement date forward to May is €21.6 million.

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

• increase for a Qualified Child with primary social welfare payments;
• the Working Family Payment for low-paid employees with children; and
• the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance (where the child is at second level).

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.

Any further extension of Child Benefit would have significant cost implications and could only be considered in an overall budgetary context.