Minister defends double child benefit payment to wealthy families

Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys has defended the situation where wealthier families will receive the additional child benefit payment along with those on lower incomes - and said it is aimed to help everyone with the cost of living crisis.

A double child benefit payment announced in the recent Budget was paid to families on Tuesday, meaning parents will receive an extra €140 payment per child this month.

Normally families receive €140 per child under the social welfare support, with that payment to be doubled this month as a once off measure to help address the rising cost of living crisis.

The double child benefit payment will affect around 640,000 families and 1.2 million children.

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The first of three €200 electricity credits to help offset the expected spikes in household bills during the winter will also kick in this month, with the credits to appear on the first household bills from Tuesday.

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Several other measures announced by the Government to try to deal with the rising cost of living in the budget will come into effect in the coming weeks.

These include a €400 lump sum fuel allowance payment paid to 370,000 households the third week of the month, as well as a €500 extra working family payment to 44,000 households.

People on the living alone allowance will receive an extra €200 lump sum this month, with carers to receive an extra €500 in their support grant during the third week of November.

Budget 2023, announced in late September, was made up of €11 billion worth of tax and spending measures, including a substantial €4.1 billion package of cost of living measures, many of which were introduced on a once off basis.

Speaking to reporters in Dublin, Ms Humphreys said: “We want to put money back in people’s pockets and we want to support people with the increase in the cost of living.”

Asked about wealthy families who will get the payment and whether she would encourage them to give it back, Ms Humphreys said that a lot of working and middle income families who need the payment will get it.

She added: “For people who decide themselves that they don’t want to be paid this money there’s no problem - they can gift it back to the State.”

She said she can make the details on how to do this available.

But Ms Humphreys added: “The majority of people that I’m meeting, when I’m out and about talking to people - they need this payment.

“They’re saying to me that the cost of living has gone up.

“When you went to the supermarket the money’s not going as far as it used to go there’s a lot of increases there.”

She also said child benefit is a universal payment that goes mainly to mothers and “it’s important that they get that...

“If you did look at targeting a measure, then you’d have to have a cut off point and you’d have to decide who should get it and who shouldn’t get it.

“And once you get into that process you’re going to have winners and losers.”

She said a lot of families with two parents on good incomes “have a lot of costs” and “I want to support working people who have children.”

A spokesman later outlined how a person could arrange for their child benefit payments to stop saying this can be arranged by phone or by emailing Child.Benefit@welfare.ie.

On the number of people who have previously done this he said: “While the Department does not collate official figures in this regard, the numbers are believed to be very low.”