Budget increases for social welfare kick in next week; here’s how recipients will be affected
The benefits come into effect from Monday onwards.
Increases to social welfare payments announced in last year’s budget will come into effect from Monday (26 March).
In total, €20 billion is to be spent on two million beneficiaries in 2018, with the maximum rate of all weekly payments – jobseekers, carers, lone parents, pensioners etc. – increasing by €5 per week.
As a result, jobseeker’s benefit will increase to a rate of €198 per week, while there will be a €5 per week increase for jobseekers aged under 26 on a reduced rate of payment and a €2 increase in all qualified child dependant weekly payments.
The €20 billion provision in Budget 2017, meanwhile, also includes an increase in the National Minimum Wage from €9.25 per hour to €9.55 per hour (which came into effect on 1 January, 2018) and a Christmas Bonus worth €219 million (85% of regular social welfare payment, minimum payment of €20) that will be paid to 1.2 million long-term social welfare recipients in December of this year.
Details of all the increases can be viewed on the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection website here and here.
