2000. Deputy Mark Wall asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated projected cost of increasing working family payment thresholds by €20 or €50; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56690/26]

The Working Family Payment is a tax-free income support designed to prevent in-work poverty for low paid employees with child dependents, and to offer a financial incentive to take-up employment.

As at the end of June, there were some 56,000 households in receipt of the Working Family Payment, in respect of some 112,000 children. The estimated expenditure for 2026 is €531 million.

The full year cost of increasing the Working Family Payment income thresholds is difficult to estimate with accuracy given the dynamics of the labour market and wage fluctuations.  It is also challenging to forecast the number of new claimants who would avail of the payment as a result of the increased threshold.

Based on information currently available to my department, the estimated cost of increasing the thresholds, for all family’s sizes, by €20 and €50 per week is approximately €35million and €88million respectively.

It should be noted that these figures are rounded estimates based on average payments and an assumed equal distribution of household rates.  The figures also do not take into account other factors such as an increased uptake of Working Family Payment due to a rise in the thresholds, or movement of customers from other schemes.