€140 Child Benefit fury after Budget 2027 two-tier €285 decision as child support cash in up to €312 hike for 330k kids

THERE will be no Child Benefit increase or new second-tier in Budget 2027, it has been confirmed.

This comes after repeated demands for a hike to the payment and the implementation of a new €285 means tested boost.

But Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers did announce an increase to the Child Support Payment and the Working Family Payment.

The Child Support Payment rates will increased by €6 to €312 per year.

This will bring payments for under 12s up to €64 to €3,328 and payments for over 12s up to €84 up to €4,368 a year.

The Working Family Payment will increase by €30 to €795 for a one child family. There will be similar increases for families with more children.

And Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers announced measures to cut the cost of childcare.

He said: “For the second year running, Government has reduced the cost of childcare in a meaningful way, easing the pressure on parents, and giving them the opportunity to return to work.”

This included a reduction in the maximum childcare fees paid by parents from €735 to €550 for children up to senior infants.

Chambers said that this would save parents €2,220 per child per year.

But these measures will disappoint those who had called for a means tested second-tier to child benefit, which it was argued would reduce child poverty.

The Economic and Social Research Institute had said that such a payment “would reduce child poverty more effectively, per euro spent, than increasing existing supports”.

This second tier would have been paid out to qualifying families on top of the universal child benefit payment.

The ESRI argued such a measure would be more effective than increases to existing payments such as the Child Support Payment, which the Government has now announced.

They estimated that this new tier would cost around €773million per year.

If it was brought in, families which qualified would be paid an average of €285 per child on top of the €140 monthly universal child benefit.

It was estimated that this would lift 157,000 children out of income poverty and 94,000 out of consistent poverty.

One Family CEO Karen Kieran said that the measures brought in today do not go far enough to help one-parent families living in poverty and won’t keep up with inflation.

The head of the parenting organisation said: “Reduction in childcare costs won’t even take effect for 11 months and while it’s welcome the income threshold has increased from €34,000 so that more families can avail of free childcare, the measures fail to deliver what one-parent families need: a public system of childcare.”

Labour Party Leader Ivana Bacik had called for the new payment in September, saying it should be among the Government’s priorities in the budget, adding that it would ensure low and middle income families get the help they need.

And in the Dail today, Sinn Fein’s Pearse Doherty said that children are being particularly hard hit by the housing crisis and needed support.

He said: “We have more than 5,000 children today homeless in this state, one of the most wealthiest countries in the world … no one should have to grow up in a hotel room and call that home.

“But that’s the reality that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have created in this Ireland of 2026 and for many years.”