Deputy Emer Higgins, TD for Dublin Mid West, has called on her government colleagues to look at extending child benefit for students in full time education up to the age of 19. Deputy Higgins said: “As discussions continue around provisions for Budget 2024, one thing I’m particularly keen to see is the extension of child benefit to all full-time students up to 19-years-old. “As parents know, child benefit stops once a child turns 18, but nowadays, many sixth year students are 18 or even 19 when they’re sitting their Leaving Cert.
“They’re still in full-time education and studying and I think that child benefit payment should be extended to recognise this. “At this stage in a young person’s life, parents are still very much the financial providers for all of their needs and I don’t think it is fair that child benefit stops at 18 when the majority of young people are still in secondary school. “The expenses don’t just stop at 18, especially when your teenage is still in school and not working.
“This is something that I have raised in the past and as we look at ways to assist people to manage with the cost of living, I think we should be considering an extension to child benefit in the context of Budget 2024,” added Deputy Higgins. “For a lot of hard working families, child benefit is the only social welfare payment that they receive and extending it up to the age of 19, providing the young person is still in full-time education, would no doubt be a help to parents and guardians.
Deputy Higgins continued: “Any extension to a social welfare payment, obviously comes at a cost, but given the very careful management of public finances over the last number of years, I believe that this is an investment that we should be in the position to make. “I’ll be raising this with my government colleagues and I sincerely hope that an extension to child benefit will be seriously considered in the upcoming budget,” concluded Deputy Higgins.
