Benefit to be cut for third and later children

CHILD Benefit for the first and second child will remain untouched in today’s budget but it will be cut for third and subsequent children.

The reductions for the latter categories mean Labour will have broken a key election pledge not to cut any Child Benefit rate. But the party is expected to claim that it saved families from cuts across the board.

Social Protection Minister Joan Burton will outline the full detail of changes to the scheme at a press conference this afternoon to discuss how her department has been affected by the budget. But coalition sources confirmed yesterday that:

* Monthly Child Benefit rate will remain at €140 for first and second children.

* The rate for the third child will be cut from €167 to €148 — a cut of €19.

* The rate for the fourth child will be cut from €177 to €160 — a cut of €17.

* The rate for subsequent children will be cut to €160.

Labour promised during the election campaign not to cut Child Benefit, with party leader Eamon Gilmore saying “enough is enough” and “families can take no more”.

In Labour’s “Manifesto for Children”, the party stated: “Child Benefit serves a critical purpose. For the overwhelming majority of parents, it is money that they count on to pay for childcare, for trips to the doctor, for food and clothing for their children or to make it worthwhile to take up paid work.

“For tens of thousands of families in this recession, it is a crucial source of household income that helps keep them afloat. Labour believes that our children should not be made to pay for the current economic crisis. . . In government, Labour will not cut Child Benefit.”

However, with Ms Burton pushed to find €700 million of savings within her department, and the Government anxious not to cut headline welfare rates, Child Benefit came in the firing line.

Labour will argue that the decision not to cut rates for the first and second child means payments for the majority of children will not be affected.

Norah Gibbons of children’s charity Barnardos said larger families would be badly hit by the cuts to the benefit rates for third and subsequent children.

“Large families are more likely to be in consistent poverty, so the cut is a very significant cut for those families,” she said.

Barnardos pointed to recently published figures from the Central Statistics Office which showed consistent poverty rates for households with more than three children rose from 6.3% to 9.6% in 2010.