Child benefit ‘too costly’ to extend to 19-year-olds

THE Taoiseach will not extend child benefit to cover 19-year-olds in fulltime education, ruling it too costly.

The current rules allow child benefit to be paid to a child under 18 in full-time schooling. But at age 16, and again at age 17, child benefit ceases at the end of the school year.

Thereafter, a parent has to complete a form and certify that the child is resuming education. Back money for the summer months is then paid from September.

Fianna Fáil TD for Kildare North Frank O’Rourke suggested automatic presumption of continuance in education to end the summer hiatus over the two years. He also suggested it be paid to the end of the school year when a person turns 18 before its completion, and that it might even be extended to age 19 – a year longer than at present.

‘This is a big issue for families. It is an expensive year – it is normally Leaving Certificate year,’ Mr O’Rourke said.

However, the Taoiseach said: ‘I think it would be something that would be nice to do . ... However, when it comes to the Social Protection budget, we have to prioritise.

‘Obviously, providing another year or two years of child benefit to people who are 18 or 19 years of age would be extremely costly.’

Child benefit was not raised in the budget last week, for the second year in a row. It has been standardised at €140 per child per month. Meanwhile the Government decided yesterday to stem opposition to the budget by farmers by tweaking the Finance Bill in relation to the trebling of stamp duty on commercial property transactions.

Mr Varadkar told the Dáil: ‘It was agreed to make a further change to taxation for farmers on consanguinity relief, to remove the age limit for a period of time to encourage and facilitate the intergenerational transfer of land within families from older to younger farmers.’