Social Welfare Payments

2. Deputy Eoin Hayes asked the Minister for Social Protection the work his Department is undertaking to increase uptake of the working family payment. [67508/26]

My question is about the uptake of the working family payment. As the Minister knows, child poverty is one of the priorities for the Government and a major scourge within our society. I would like to hear how the Government is focusing on getting families who need that payment and would do very well with it to take it up.

I thank the Deputy for his question. As he knows, reducing poverty and supporting families begins with ensuring that people are aware of the assistance available to them. The working family payment is a weekly, tax-free payment for employees on low earnings who have children. Evidence shows that it is an effective means of targeting support towards vulnerable working families and reducing their risk of poverty. This Government has therefore increased the working family payment income thresholds in successive budgets, enabling more families to qualify. My Department promotes the scheme across the year through information campaigns, engagement with stakeholders, direct communications, information on our website and through social media. We have amended the application process to make it as clear and straightforward as possible. We have also introduced an online application process through mywelfare.ie. The budget process always raises awareness of the working family payment. As part of budget 2026, we increased the working family income threshold by €60 for every family size. I also increased eligibility for the fuel allowance to include working family payment recipients. That had a significant impact on the amount of applications we received. The number of families receiving the working family payment has increased from 47,000 in 2023 to more than 56,000 in 2026, which is an increase of almost 20%. My Department and I are focused on continuing to improve awareness of all of our schemes, improve accessibility to the understanding of those schemes and to improve the uptake of those schemes. When we complete the current budget process with whatever changes are made, we will once again renew promotional campaigns and awareness-building campaigns. We will also work with various employer groups to ensure they are aware that their employees could be entitled to this payment.

I thank the Minister for his reply. On Committee Stage, the assistant secretary general shared the information that, as the Minister said, there would be 56,000 recipients in 2026. However, the Department estimates a 53% uptake among those who are eligible, which means that approximately 50,000 people who would get that payment were they to apply for it are not getting it. That is a big problem. What comes to mind for me is the fact that the Government was able to work with Revenue to identify all recipients of carer's allowance and target them in quite a negative way in terms of tax bands. It seems the Minister is not doing the positive side of that story, which is working with other agencies to target the families who need support, reach out to them, send the community welfare officers out, send officials from the Department out or whatever it is. For some reason, the Minister is not focusing on these neediest families. I ask him to consider how he can work to identify these families and reach out to them proactively rather than relying solely on an application process.

The 50% figure is based on a 2023 paper by the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI. Since then, as I said, we have increased the number of families by 20% and that continues to increase. The working family payment, because it is connected to earnings, is complicated and complex. That earning profile can change depending on work patterns so it is not a direct correlation in terms of it. Certainly, however, I will ask my officials to pursue if there will be information available through working with Revenue. We had a debate in this Chamber on Tuesday evening about not sharing information. We also have to be very careful in relation to that. I have to say that I think the Deputy will see greater uptake. The alignment of the fuel allowance payment to the working family payment did more to raise awareness of the working family payment than a lot of things. I think the 2026 figures will show growth. The working family payment is one of the most important payments in the Department. It encourages people to go out to work. It acknowledges that there is an expense in going to work. I will be doing my utmost to promote its availability and accessibility but also to ensure people know they may or may not qualify for it. That is the biggest challenge with the working family payment.

I accept that. I appreciate anything the Minister and his officials do in that regard. It is important to acknowledge that consistent child poverty is at 8%, so it is double what it was before. When we take housing into account, it is about 10%. It is about 26.6% for families whose youngest child is between the ages of zero and five. Working families really do need this kind of support. Child poverty is something that comes up in the context of the budget every year. Last year, the Taoiseach said he wanted a second tier of child benefit. The Minister said he wanted a second tier of child benefit; he did not deliver it. This year, the Minister said he would like to deliver a second tier of child benefit but he cannot deliver it in this budget. It would, therefore, be helpful to know what he thinks about reforming the working family payment and this question of second tier of child benefit. What is the plan over the course of the Government? Will the Minister introduce it over the coming years? Why not this year? Importantly, I spoke to a paediatrician recently. I was expecting her to talk about healthcare or the HSE. The thing she focused on was child poverty and this question of a second tier of child benefit. I would be really interested to know how the Minister is actually going to tackle this problem, including the housing costs that are plunging people into poverty.

I assure the Deputy that we are very focused on child poverty. I am not just waiting; we are doing a lot of consultation on what a second tier of child payment might look like. One of the models that is most quoted would result in potentially thousands of families getting lower income on that model, so it is important that we review all the options. We moved last year in budget 2026 to increase the child support payment by €16 and €8. That was a record increase. We are negotiating with the Department of public expenditure in relation to the child support payment for this year. That goes directly to the lowest income families. As I said, we also increased the threshold for the working family payment last year and we added the fuel allowance to the working family payment. It was first time people who were in work were able to access the fuel allowance. That was worth, given the extended season, about €1,100 per year to those working families. We are doing the work on what a second tier of payment might look like but we are also ensuring those families are getting payments and support when they need it most. We will continue the work. I do not want a situation where, potentially, up to 100,000 families are worse-off because we introduced a second tier of child payment. That is not going to happen. In the meantime, we are supplementing their working incomes as well.