Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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28. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection how her Department assesses the effectiveness of child benefit and back to school allowance payments in reducing child poverty, in light of recent research from the ESRI indicating that nearly 230,000 children in the country lack basic necessities such as food, clothing and heating. [37650/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Government is keenly aware of issues in relation to child poverty, and these formed a critical input into the development of Budget 2024 which included a social welfare package of almost €2.3 billion. The Budget measures are progressive and proportionately benefit those in lower income quintiles most. It is important that this momentum is maintained for Budget 2025.

Child Benefit is a 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 19th birthday where they are in full-time education or have a disability. The extension of Child Benefit to 18-year-olds was one of my key priorities in Budget 2024 and I am very pleased that we were able to bring that change in from May this year.

The Back-to-School Clothing and Footwear Allowance scheme provides a once-off payment to eligible families to assist with the costs of clothing and footwear when children start or return to school each autumn. One of the qualifying conditions is that the household income must be within the relevant income limits. Applications which fall outside the normal rules of the scheme may be considered for an Additional Needs Payment under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme.

Families on low incomes may also be able to avail of other supports from my Department. In Budget 2024, I increased the level of the weekly Increase for a Qualified Child by €4 bringing the rates to €46 for a child under 12 and €54 for a child aged 12 or over. I also increased the income thresholds to qualify for Working Family Payment by €54 per week.

Like the Back-to-School Clothing and Footwear Allowance these schemes provide targeted assistance that is directly linked to household income and thereby support low-income families with children. The Economic and Social Research Institute has found that social transfers targeting children, particularly the Increase for a Qualified Child and Working Family Payment, have the greatest effect on poverty.

The 2023 Survey on Income and Living Conditions saw a reduction in consistent poverty from 4.9% in the 2022 release to 3.6% in the 2023 release. This is the lowest recorded consistent poverty rate since the series began. The consistent poverty rate for children also decreased, from 7% in the 2022 release to 4.8% in the 2023 release.

The Survey on Income and Living Conditions 2023 relates to income in the calendar year 2022 and as such it does not take account of the significant Budget measures in 2023 and 2024. However, the 2023 release confirmed that the Government’s cost-of-living measures were effective at protecting the most vulnerable from the risk of poverty arising from inflation. Without these cost-of-living measures, the at risk of poverty rate would have increased from 12.5% in the 2022 release to 13% in the 2023 release but instead, it fell to 10.6%.

My Department’s schemes are kept under review, particularly in the context of the Budgetary process.

I trust this clarifies the position.