Public Consultation on Potential New Working Age and Targeted Child Payments

The Government’s Programme for Government, Securing Ireland’s Future, includes commitments to explore two schemes:

• A new targeted Child Payment
• A new working age payment

We have set out a discussion document which explains one possible way to meet these commitments. We are asking for your views on this approach.

The document explains:

• a new targeted child payment to help low-income families with the cost of raising children, and
• a new working age payment to replace our current Jobseeker’s Allowance payment.

What am I being asked about?

This consultation looks at two possible new payments. They are designed to work together. The idea is that they would be introduced at the same time.

However, this is just one suggested approach.

We have the option to support just one payment, or none of the payments. You are invited to look at each proposal separately and decide on if you think either, both, or neither should go ahead.

It also sets out the arguments for and against these changes.

The discussion document includes ideas for:

• a potential new targeted child payment, and
• a potential new working age payment.

A potential new targeted child payment

Currently the main supports for low-income families are the Working Age Payment and Child Support Payments. These payments help reduce poverty but each payment has rules that may exclude some low-income families.

There have been calls to replace our current system with a single stand-alone targeted child payment, also known as a “Second-Tier Child Benefit”, as part of the government’s commitment to reducing child poverty.

One possible approach for a targeted child payment is to create a new separate weekly payment for low-income families with children. It would replace the current Child Support Payment and Working Family Payment. How it could work:

• it would be for families on low income. The families would not need to be getting any another social welfare payment
• the amount paid would depend on their household income and how many children are in the family
• similar to the current Child Support Payment, there would be a set amount for each child in the family. The amount paid would be higher for children aged 12 and over
• families with lower incomes would get the maximum rate. The payment would gradually reduce as the household income increases
• it would not affect the universal Child Benefit payment, which is to stay the same

How the new Working Age Payment could work

Jobseeker’s Allowance is our main income support for people who are unemployed, or working part-time. While it works well, in some cases, in can discourage people from taking on extra hours. This is because earning more can mean losing the payment.

The government has committed to introducing a Working Age Payment to make sure that work always pays.

One option is to replace Jobseeker’s Allowance with a new payment where people are paid an amount based on how far their income is below a set threshold.

• if someone earns more, their payment would reduce gradually, instead of stopping suddenly
• this would avoid the “cliff edge” where people lose their payment all at once

If introduced the new working age payment would be:

• for people between 18 and 66
• it would apply no matter how many days or hours they work
• available to single people, couples and families with children

The new working age payment would support modern work by understanding people may have different work patterns on different weeks or have multiple sources of income. The aim is to create a flexible system and encourage people to increase their working hours.

The payments described are proposals for possible changes. No decision has been made on what, if any, changes will be made. The purpose of this consultation document is to get your feedback on what should happen next.

You can share your feedback by email or post:

Email: WACPConsultation@welfare.ie

Post:

The deadline for receipt of submissions is 5pm on Friday 12 June, 2026.

All replies received will be considered in full and will be published online.

If you prefer to share your feedback in person, we will host in-person and online events for the general public and stakeholder groups to share their views and ideas.

If you are interested in attending one of these events, please contact us by email at WACPConsultation@welfare.ie.

How to share your views

This consultation is open to everyone. We especially want to hear from members of the public, but also from organisations who work with individuals and families on low incomes.

We have prepared an optional submission guidance document and template for sharing your feedback, which is available below.

Before making a submission, please read the discussion document. It explains the potential changes and includes questions to consider for your submission. An ISL interpretation of the discussion document is available for ISL users and a screen-reader friendly version is available for screen-reader users.

It is important to read the privacy information below as your submission may be published on gov.ie.

If you are contributing on behalf of an organisation, please provide the organisation name.

We will not name individuals, but all views may be published on gov.ie and feature as a summary in a report.

Making a written submission

If you want to write a submission, you can send it by post or email:

• send it to the following address: WACP Consultation, One Parent and Child Income Policy Unit, Floor r, Áras Mhic Dhiarmada, Store Street, Dublin 1, D01 WY03
• email it as an attachment to WACPConsultation@welfare.ie Please put “WACP Consultation” in the subject line

The Department of Social Protection will review all the responses.

We will use the feedback and submissions received to help design and develop options for:

• A new targeted Child Payment
• A new working age payment

If you are making a written submission, please read the privacy information below. We will not identify any individuals, but all views may be published on gov.ie.

We will publish a report on the consultation on gov.ie with a summary of the submissions we receive.

This is a public consultation, and the Freedom of Information Act 2014 applies. This means that written submissions will be published by the Department of Social Protection in full. We ask you to please read our Privacy Statement.

To help us protect your privacy, we ask you not to provide information that is:

• personal
• commercially sensitive
• anything which you would not want made public

(Commercially sensitive information includes information on pricing, profits, new ideas or sensitive industry knowledge.)

However, if you do provide commercially sensitive information, please clearly identify the material, and tell us:

• why it is commercially sensitive
• why it should not be published or made available under the Freedom of Information Act

We may receive a request to release a submission under the Freedom of Information Act and be required to release it.

In these cases, we will consult with you about the information that is personal or identified as commercially sensitive.

We will do this before we decide to:

• release the submission in full
• release part of the submission (some details will be blacked out so they cannot be read)
• not release the submission

How long will you keep the submissions?

We will keep the submissions until the review is complete and any accepted recommendations have been put in place.

Relevant legislation

All responses to this consultation are subject to:

• The Freedom of Information Act
• The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2016/67
• The Data Protection Act 2018

The deadline to send your submission is 5pm Friday 12 June 2026.

Email: WACPConsultation@welfare.ie

Address:

WACP Consultation

Child and One Parent Income Policy unit

Áras Mhic Dhiarmada,

Store Street,

Dublin 1,

D01 WY03

ISL users can view an ISL interpretation of this document below.

The ISL interpretation video can be used with the Discussion Document - the document’s sections are written in the top right corner of the video and you can navigate to these sections using the chapters in the text below the video.

For a copy of the consultation in braille please email us at WACPConsultation@welfare.ie

Please say which version of braille you would like.