Family Life

Parents, Budget 2019 has arrived and this is how you'll be affected

 

It's that time of year again – Budget day is upon us.

Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe announced the 2019 Budget today in the Dail amidst rumours of new tax cuts and spending increases, but how will it affect us as parents and what impact will it have on our family life and health? 

Here are the main points:

Family Life

Donohoe said, ''we will protect the most vulnerable in our society,'' and overall, the Government said they wanted to attempt to target children living in poverty and help parents in relation to childcare costs and support. This means payment increases for children of people living on welfare payments. The weekly qualified child allowance of €31.80 will go up by €2.20 for children under 12, while it will rise by €5.20 for children over 12. 

Schools and colleges were also invested in with the Minister saying, “I am allocating an additional €1.4 billion for schools, universities, public transport and other important infrastructure projects in 2019, bringing total expenditure on capital next year to €7.3 billion.”

Parents are also set to benefit from increases to Child Benefit payments as part of an across-the-board increase of €5 on all weekly Social Protection payments.

The Christmas bonus is to be fully restored for welfare recipients in Budget 2019. Currently, welfare recipients receive an extra 85 per cent of their weekly payment in early December. The payment will be increased to 100 per cent this year.

Parental Leave

There is two extra weeks of parental leave with the hopes to increase it to seven over the coming years. The general consensus is that it will be paid and have to be used within first 12-months of a child's life. It will reportedly be available to each parent but non-transferable, in that one parent cannot transfer their leave to the other to give them four weeks. 

This new paid leave scheme is on top the maternity and paternity leave options already in place, so this is not an addition to the 18 weeks UNPAID Parental Leave that a parent can currently avail of between 0-8 years for each child. It will take effect in November 2019. 

Childcare Support

In relation to childcare support, the threshold for families to access the highest level of childcare support will be increased. Families earning less than €22,700 net were previously receiving the maximum subsidy, however, this will be increased to €26,000 net to help low-income households. 

Head of Community at MagicMum, Laura Erskine said that overall, the childcare support offered in the 2019 budget was disappointing as it wasn't all-inclusive for families. 

"While there is some good news in relation to childcare, overall it does nothing to help Middle-Income families who are struggling to pay childcare fees that amount to the price of a second mortgage for some families. We were hoping for the introduction of a new tax credit to help these families as this would not tie them to using formal childcare creche facilities – these facilities do not suit all families, particularly those who do shift work and those with children also in primary school that require after-school care."

Health

An additional €84 million will be provided for Mental Health Services in 2019 bringing the total available funding for Mental Health to €1 billion.

There will be a 50 cent reduction in prescription charges from €2.00 to €1.50 for all medical card holders over the age of 70. 

There will be a €25 increase in the weekly income threshold for GP Visit cards, meaning an additional 100,00 people may qualify for the cards. Good news, despite the fact that families are still waiting on the Free GP care for Under 12's promised in the Budget announcements October 2015.

Patients under the Drugs Payments Scheme will be happy to hear that the monthly cut-off charge on medicine is slightly reduced to €130 from the current level of €134.

Taxes

It's good news for workers as the Universal Social Charge is set to be lowered by 0.25 percent (meaning roughly an extra fiver a week) and threshold which people hit the higher tax band, 40 percent rate of income tax, will rise by €750 from €34,550.

As well as that, the threshold at which people hit the lower 2 percent rate of USC, (incomes between 12,000 and 19,000) will be widened by €500, taking into account the 25 cent increase in the minimum wage. Home carers tax credit is increasing by €300 and the earned income tax credit for the self-employed is up €200.

Housing

The housing crisis has also been looked at, with €2.3billion has been allocated to the housing programme in 2019, with an extra €150 million will be allocated for the housing assistance payment. There will be €1.25billion for 10,000 new social homes in 2019. 

He said, ''more new homes will be provided this year than any year in the past decade''

Thresholds for affordable housing applicants set at €50,000 for single applicants and €75,000 for dual applicants.

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