Increased payments for in-work benefit and carer’s grant to be made this week
Increased payments, promised during the 2023 Budget, for the in-work benefit and the carer's grant will be made this week.
This was announced by Social Policy Minister Michael Falzon and permanent secretary of the Ministry Mark Musù during a press conference.
The measures include an increase in the carer's grant, which from this year will increase to almost €4,510. This amount will begin to be divided into four payments of almost €1,127.50 every three months. Eligible persons do not need to apply and the payment process is entirely automatic.
This grant was first announced in 2021 when the annual amount being paid was €300 and later rose to €500. The total expenditure of this grant will rise from €230,000 to €2m per year.
The first payment will be made on 8 April and payments will continue to be made every three months.
The Ministry also announced that single people, who are on social benefits, will no longer have a reduction in their income if they are not considered to be the head of the family. This means that these
people will continue receiving €13.21 a week which will now no longer be deducted.
Another measure being introduced is the in-work benefit, where parents under the age of 23 will benefit from this payment covering the first three months of the year. Overall, there are 22,500 families that will receive €3.2m between them through this benefit.
The in-work benefit was introduced at the end of 2022 and the press conference revealed that around 9,000 fam
ilies with 14,000 children became eligible for this benefit. These families were paid without the need to submit an application because they were selected according to their income as registered with the Tax Commissioner's Office.
The press conference also analysed the National Statistics Office data which showed that social expenditure increased by €81m in 2022 when compared to the previous year. Statistics also showed that over the past 10 years, there has been an increase of more than 54% in expenditure on pensions and social benefits. The NSO figures also showed that expenditure on non-contributory benefits grew by €30m.
There was also a major increase in the fund allocated for supplementary aid which rose from a little less than €18m to €31.2m. This increase mainly took place because an additional grant was given to the annual compensation for the cost of living so that families and people with low income or on social benefits can cope better with inflation.