Irish children of British workers set for benefits rise

Irish workers in Britain, whose children remain in Ireland, should receive an increase in child benefit from the British government under the terms of its deal to stay in the EU.

The agreement includes a provision to index-link child benefit to the GDP of the member state where the children live, and that it would rise as well as fall.

Working on purchasing power parity — the cost of buying the same goods in countries — Ireland is at 130% of the EU average, while Britain is at 109%, which should mean Irish workers in Britain whose children are here would be eligible for a benefit hike.

The Irish would not be the only nationality entitled to an increase — workers from other countries with a higher GDP than Britain would also be eligible. Luxembourg parents would be entitled to more than double what a British worker would receive for their children. Parents from the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, and Finland would also be eligible for an increase.

EU workers in Britain destined to see their child benefit cut are from countries including France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia.

The agreement — provided the British vote on June 23 to remain in the EU — allows the UK to reduce child allowance for workers from other EU countries whose children remain in their home country, to the GDP of that country.

This would see allowances to children in Poland and Hungary, for example, cut by a third, and more than halved for those in Bulgaria and Romania.

For workers already in Britain from the date the new rule would be introduced — expected to be early 2018 — the reduction would be phased in over four years.

Ireland has said it wants to adopt the same system but the only EU nationalities who would receive more than Irish citizens’ children would be those from Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Ireland currently pays out around €10m a year to parents whose children live in their home countries — mainly Poland. Taoiseach Enda Kenny, asked if he would favour pursuing this plan if the cost of implementation is greater than the savings, said he would have to wait to consider this.

Ireland, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Malta all favoured applying the full reduction in child benefit to all workers from other EU countries immediately, including those living in the country for some time.

If Britain votes to leave the EU, this and other concessions would fall.

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