Social Welfare Payments
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-24
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Dara Calleary (FF), Mayo

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.

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Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-24