Wealthy families could be given chance to hand back child benefit

Do you have too much money in your life? If so, then you may get the chance to hand back the child benefit payment you receive every month.

The Minister for social protection, Joan Burton, wants to give wealthy families the chance to give back their €140 child benefit payment if they feel they don’t really need it. Sadly, we’re just coming into chandelier season, so we doubt too many rich people will be handing back their ‘free’ cash anytime soon.

The idea comes as part of a round of proposals that are being drawn up by the Department of Social Protection. One proposal is that parents who feel they don’t need the money can ‘opt out’ of receiving it, meaning there’s more cash in the pot for families that need it more.

As pressure mounts to cut costs, Minister Burton and her crack team of cost cutters are doing their best to… you guessed it, cut costs. In fairness, it’s not a bad idea, but the only problem is that we will have to rely on ordinary people to do their part here. Obviously, some will be good citizens and hand back the cash, however, unless they’re forced to hand it back some simply won’t.

There are currently around 600,000 families throughout the country who receive child benefit at a cost of €2bn to the state every year. So hopefully some of those will take up Minister Burton on her offer.