Christmas bonus back at reduced rate, as Child Benefit increases €5 per child

All recipients of core social welfare payments will get a 25 per cent Christmas bonus this year, Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin has announced.

Mr Howlin also announced an increase in child benefit of €5 per month per child, or €60 per year, to begin in January.

Describing Budget 2015 as a significant day that marked the end of budgetary austerity, he said the Government was determined the economic recovery would be matched by a social recovery.

It was the first budget since 2009 which would see no cuts to social welfare rates, he said, and he was allocating €19.4 billion to the Social Protection budget next year.

The Living Alone allowance will increase to €9 per week.

In an effort to encourage unemployed parents back into work, the Back to Work family dividend will allow families retain their qualified child allowance of €29.80 per week for 12 months after returning to work and to retain 50 per cent of this for the second 12 months after returning to work.

Mr Howlin said the cost of these measures would be €196 million and would be funded in the main by the reduction in expenditure on unemployment assistance and jobseekers’s allowance due to falling numbers on the live register.

Social welfare spending is due to reduce by almost €140 million over the next three years amid expectations the labour market conditions will improve .

In a Comprehensive Expenditure Report published alongside today’s other budget documents, the Government said it expects to gain €400 million in additional live register expenditure in 2015, on top of €42 million in savings from 2014.

Thhe Government has set expenditure ceilings for the Department of Social Protection at €19.4 billion in 2015, falling to €19.27 billion by 2017.

“The ceiling for the Department of Social Protection reflects an adjustment to take account of the estimated impact on Live Register-related expenditure of further improvements in labour market conditions and lower numbers on the Live Register,” the document states.

In the next three years, total social welfare expenditure will be in the order of ¤58 billion with over a third, or 36 per cent of voted Government expenditure - being allocated to the Department of Social Protection next year.