Budget 2023

Budget 2023

From cost-of-living to social welfare, pensions, tax, childcare and a few surprises Government announce €11bn Budget package

New rental tax credit of €500

• Energy credit of €600 in three instalments — first before Christmas
• Cigarettes will cost an extra 50c from tonight, but there will be no increase in price of alcohol
• Elderly, Carer’s, disabled to receive extra lump sums as social welfare rates go up €12
• Third-level fees cut by €1,000 this year with once-off double student grant
• The double child benefit payment will be paid to all qualifying parents on 1 November
• Major expansion in GP visit card scheme bringing in 430,000 extra patients

Social welfare

Personal rates of social welfare will rise by €12 from January 2023, with a proportionate increase for qualified adults and people on reduced rates of payment.

The top up paid to people on CE, TUS and the Rural Social Scheme will increase by €5. The Domiciliary Care Allowance will be increased by €20.50 per month and will be available to parents whose child is in hospital for up to 6 months.

The income threshold for Fuel Allowance will be widened.

Once-off payments

A one-off double week of all weekly social welfare payments (including pensions) will be paid in October 2022. In addition, a one-off double payment of Child Benefit will be paid in November 2022.

A one-off payment of €500 will be paid to people who get the Working Family Payment

The normal Christmas Bonus of 100% will be paid in early December 2022 to people getting a social welfare payment for at least 4 months.

Fuel Allowance and Living Alone Allowance

People who get Fuel Allowance will get an additional once-off €400 payment this winter.

People who get the Living Alone Increase will get an additional €200 lump sum this winter. If you get both Fuel Allowance and the Living Alone Allowance, you will get both additional payments.

One-off payments for Carer’s and people with disabilities

A one-off payment of €500 will be paid in November to people who get:

• The Carer’s Support Grant
• Disability Allowance
• Invalidity Pension
• Blind Pension
• Payments to families

The weekly rate for a qualified child will increase by €2 from €40 to €42 for children under 12 years of age. It will increase by €2 from €48 to €50 for children aged 12 years and over (from January 2023).

The Working Family Payment thresholds will increase by €40 across all family sizes.

Help with energy costs

All domestic electricity customers will get £600 credit off their electricity bills. The credit will be paid in 3 instalments of €200. The first payment will be made before Christmas.

More people will qualify for Fuel Allowance. People getting Fuel Allowance will get an additional once- off payment of €400 this winter.

The 9% VAT rate for gas and electricity is extended to 28 February 2023. The reduction of 21 cent per litre for petrol, 16 cent per litre tax for diesel and 5.4 cent per litre for Marked Gas Oil are also extended to 28 February 2023.

£270 million will be available to help community groups, schools, hospitals, sports clubs and other organisations to pay energy bills.

Supports will also be available for businesses (see ‘Employment and business’ below).

Tax

The rate of income tax will stay the same, but income tax bands (the rate at which you pay the higher rate of tax) and tax credits will be increased.

The standard rate tax band will increase from €36,800 to €40,000 for a single person, with proportionate increases for married couples and civil partners The Personal, Employee and Earned Income tax credits will increase by €75 to €1,775 The Home Carer Tax Credit will increase by €100 to €1,700 Universal Social Charge (USC) The ceiling of the 2% USC band will increase by €1,625 to €22,920, so that the salary of a full-time worker on the minimum wage will remain outside the higher rates of USC.

Rent tax credit

Renters can claim a €500 tax credit for this year and subsequent years.

VAT

The reduced VAT rate of 9% for the hospitality sector will continue until 28 February 2023.

Zero VAT rates will apply to:

• Newspapers
• Defibrillators
• Period products
• Hormone replacement products
• Nicotine replacement products
• Employment and business

Minimum wage

The national minimum wage will increase by €0.80 to €11.30 per hour (January 2023).

Energy supports for businesses

A new Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme will be administered by Revenue.

Tax exemptions

The annual limit of the Small Benefit Exemption will increase from €500 to €1000 from 2022.

The following farming tax reliefs will continue:

• Young Trained Farmer Stamp Duty Relief
• Farm Consolidation Stamp Duty Relief
• Farm Restructuring Capital Gains Tax Relief
• Young Trained Farmer Stock Relief
• Registered Farm Partnership Stock Relief

Licences

The cost of applying for a Special Exemption Order for late night venues will be halved to €55.

Education and training

Free schoolbooks for primary schools From 2023/24, schoolbooks for primary school children will be free.

Classroom places

686 new teachers will be recruited to support children with special needs and 1194 new Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) will be recruited.

Third level fees and grants

The Student Contribution is reduced from €3000 to €2000. This applies from the 2022/23 academic year. It will be reduced by a further €500 next year.

Budget 2021

• Pensioners
• Families and Children
• People in Work
• Carers and People with Disabilities
• People who are unemployed or on PUP
• Christmas Bonus
• Download the Budget Fact Sheet

€25.13 billion to be spent on Social Welfare in 2021

In her first budget, as Minister for Social Protection, Heather Humphreys has secured an overall package of over €25bn for social welfare measures in 2021 that focuses on the unprecedented economic circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pensioners

• State Pension Qualifying Age to remain at age 66 from January — legislation to be implemented by end 2020.
• £5 increase in the weekly Living Alone Allowance from €14 to €19 paid to people aged 66 and over who are living alone — over 221,000 pensioners, widows/widowers and people with disabilities to benefit.
• Over 600,000 pensioners will benefit from the Christmas Bonus Double Payment.
• Fuel Allowance will increase by €3.50 to €28.00 per week — over 375,000 households to benefit.
• Island Allowance (paid to people living on certain offshore islands) to increase to €20 per week from January —an increase of €7.30 – first increase to the Island Allowance since it was introduced in 2000.
• Grant of up to €500 will be paid for hearing aids without requiring it to be matched by the customer.
• Hearing Aid repairs of up to €100 will no longer require matching funding by the customer.

Families and Children

• Hot School Meals programme — Additional €56.5m for programme commencing in January 2021.
• £5 increase for qualified child dependants aged 12 and over, in all weekly payments.
• £2 increase for qualified child dependants up to age 12, in all weekly payments.
• Parent’s Benefit increases to 5 weeks for parents of children born or adopted from November 2019 —an increase of 3 weeks.
• £10 increase in the weekly income threshold for Working Family Payment for families with up to three children to help working parents on low incomes.
• Working lone parents will no longer lose their One-Parent Family Payment when their employment income exceeds the current €425 limit. This limit of €425 will be removed from April 2021.
• Newly widowed parents with dependent children will receive a grant of €8,000 from January “2021 — an increase of €2,000.

People in Work

• The number of ‘waiting days’ for lliness Benefit will reduce from 6 days to 3 days for all new claims from the end of February 2021.
• Parent’s Benefit increases to 5 weeks for parents of children born or adopted from November 2019 — an increase of 3 weeks.
• €10 increase in the weekly income threshold for Working Family Payment for families with up to three children – to help working parents on low incomes.
• Working lone parents will no longer lose their One-Parent Family Payment when their ‘ © employment income exceeds the current €425 limit. This limit of €425 will be removed from l & April 2021.

Carers and People with Disabilities

• £5 increase for qualified child dependants aged 12 and over, in all weekly payments.
• £2 increase for qualified child dependants up to age 12, in all weekly payments.
• Fuel Allowance will increase by €3.50 to €28.00 per week — over 375,000 households to benefit.
• Highest ever Carer’s Support Grant of €1,850 per year (increase of €150) to be paid in 2021 – to benefit over 130,000 carers.
• €5 increase in the weekly Living Alone Allowance from €14 to €19 for people with disabilities who are living alone — over 221,000 to benefit.
• Earnings disregard for people receiving Disability Allowance who are working to increase by €20 per week to €140.
• New €1,000 Training Grant to help people with disabilities who are seeking employment.

People who are unemployed or on PUP

• A Christmas Bonus of 100% will be paid on an exceptional basis this year to recipients of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment and equivalent recipients of Jobseeker’’s Payments who have been
• on these payments for four months or more.
• Self-employed workers will be able to earn up to €480 a month gross and keep their Pandemic Unemployment Payment.
• Funding for €1,000 COVID-19-Enterprise Support Grant doubled to €24 million.
• The Part-Time Job Incentive scheme to be made available to the self-employed who intend to resume their business but can only do so intermittently or on a limited/reduced basis when they leave the PUP.
• €10 million is being provided towards employment supports for people who are unemployed, with specific focus on youth unemployment. This is in addition to the €112 million provided in the July Stimulus package.

Christmas Bonus

A 100% Christmas Bonus will be paid in December 2020 to recipients of long-term Social Welfare payments (min €20 payment). People in receipt of the following payments will receive the Bonus:

• State Pensions and Widow’s/Widower’s/Surviving Civil Partner’s Pensions
• Invalidity Pension, Blind Pension, Disability Allowance, Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit,Partial Capacity Benefit, Disablement Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and Guardian’s payments.
• One-Parent Family Payment, Long-term Jobseeker’s Allowance, Jobseeker’s Transition Payment, Deserted Wife’s Benefit and Allowance and Farm Assist.
• Back to Work Enterprise Allowance, Community Employment, Rural Social Scheme, TUS, Gateway and Job Initiative, Supplementary Welfare Allowance, Daily Expenses Aliowance, Magdalene Commission Scheme.
• On an exceptional basis this year, recipients of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment and equivalent recipients of Jobseeker’’s Payments who have been on these payments for four months or more.

€25.13 billion to be spent on Social Welfare in 2021

• State Pension — Qualifying age to remain at 66 years
• Fuel Allowance – an extra €3.50 in Fuel Allowance payment per week
• Living Alone Allowance – €5 increase per week
• Carers — Carer’s Support Grant to be increased by €150 to €1,850
• Increases for Qualified Children – €5 weekly increase far children age 12 and over; – €2 weekly for children up to age 12
• lliness Benefit — number of ‘waiting days’ will reduce from 6 days to 3 days
• Parent’s Benefit _ increases to 5 weeks for children born or adopted from 1 November 2019
• Disability Allowance — earnings disregard will be increased by €20 per week to €140
• People with disabilities —€1,000 grant to help people with disabilities to access employment
• Hot School Meals programme — €5.5 million boost for programme extension in 2021
• Working Family Payment threshold —€10 increase in weekly threshold (up to three children)
• Working Lone Parents — income limit of €425 from employment to be removed