Up to 2,500 extra to qualify for rural social protection help

Up to 2,000 extra farm families may benefit from the farm assist programme in 2017, and the rural social scheme has 500 extra spaces, according to Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar.

The Government has budgeted for €82.8m of Farm Assist spending, compared to a 2016 spend of about €79m.

Budget 2017 introduced new measures in assessment of means for Farm Assist, including that farm income will now be assessed at 70%, down from 100%, and an additional annual means disregard of €254 for each of the first two children and €381 for the third and subsequent children.