He's right on this....."scrap the childen allowance" says O'Leary.

I know that here up north and in Britain, the child beneift (as it's called up here) is to be made means tested, though there's a major flaw in that it'll be tested against one working parent's income and not the joint income of both, which means someone who is working getting £50k with their partner staying at home won't be entitled, while if both work and the combined income is £65k, it's more than likely that they'll be eligible provided one of them doesn't earn more than £42k per year (I think that's the amount planned).

There are advantages in having child benefit/allowance as a universal benefit, in that it treats all children the same and with no means testing overheads for processing can be kept low and dealt with quickly. Introducing means testing requires more staff and/or more time to process not to mention changes in applicants circumstances and I'm sure those that make a point about waste in public services would not be thrilled with that.

If some people get the allowance for their children and feel they don't need it, the best way of dealing with it IMO is to set up a DD with a charity that helps children locally or elsewhere in Ireland e.g. SVdP to be taken out the day after the benefit is paid into the account.

I don't have children myself, but I recognise the importance of ensuring those that are children today grow up healthily and educated and whom themselves will be the ones in the future paying for the provision of public services through their taxes along with things that money itself doesn't buy like love, friendship and community spirit. I am no island, and the world doesn't just revolve around my own concerns and interests.

Also when people call for means testing do they have any insight into how much it would actually cost to means test everyone who applies for welfare payments? We complain a lot about the bloated administrative branch of bodies like the HSE but means testing of welfare payments will only add to this and would probably be pretty costly in its own right. I'm not saying it'd be more expensive than just giving children's allowance to everyone but its a point you don'ty often see raised...

dj jarvis wrote: »

what ??? are your for real ???

have you never gone abroad - or worked abroad ?

i travel in Scandinavia a lot as well as Denmark and Germany and trust me these nations child care system is LIGHT years ahead of ours

you want links - use google

we are on about child benefit only, what are the rates for Denmark and Germany per child?

You need to provide the links not me.

Dj - just a suggestion but would you not be better off looking for a job to raise your children rather than deciding which country you want to move to for more "benefits"?

You're a disgrace

I'm not even going to bother

what I've never understood is why it increases for 3rd and subsequent children.
surely it should lowered for subsequent children as food costs will only be marginally higher, clothes and toys are often handed down, etc.

also for twins you get 1.5 times the amount, and then one-off payments of €635 are given on their 4th & 12th birthdays. that should be abolished immediately.

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

Be entitled to it through the social welfare.parent would need to claim it as a benefit.

I think what she is talking about are the people that fall between having a high income and associative high taxes and those on welfare...someone working a minimum wage 39 hr week for instance who pay very little or no tax, so a tax credit would be unused...there would still need to be some middle ground and some form of payment to cover those people.