The Government has announced a weekly increase of €10 per person in a range of social protection payments from 2026, including: the State pension, disability allowance, carer's allowance, jobseeker's allowance and one-parent family payment.
A Christmas bonus of a double payment for recipients of long-term social welfare schemes will be paid again this year.
The increases, which apply from January 2026, means the non-contributory State pension will rise to €288 per week for people aged 66 to 79 and €298 for those over 80.
Jobseeker's allowance (for those aged over 25) and disability allowance will both rise to €254 per week.
Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers announced the increases during the presentation of Budget 2026 to the Dáil today.
"This will benefit 1.5 million recipients, including pensioners, people with disabilities, carers, jobseekers and lone parents," he said.
Minister Chambers said that he is allocating €28.9bn to the Department of Social Protection next year, an increase of over €2bn.
He also announced an increase of €375 in the carer's allowance income disregard to €1,000 for a single person and €750 for a couple to €2,000; and an increase in the rate of domiciliary care allowance by €20 per month, to €380 per month.
There will be a €300m package of supports for children and families, including an increase in the weekly rates of the child benefit payment by €8 for children under 12 and by €16 for children over 12. This will bring the weekly payment to €58 for children under 12 and €78 for those over 12.
However, the two double payments of child benefits that featured in last year's budget have not been repeated.
The working family payment income thresholds are being increased by €60 per week for all families.
The back-to-school clothing and footwear payment is being extended to two and three-year-olds while the weekly fuel allowance rate is being increased by €5 to €38, and fuel allowance eligibility will be extended to all households in receipt of the working family payment.
Mr Chambers (speaking above) said: "Alongside these new measures, the 2026 allocation for the Department will provide for: an additional 30,000 recipients on pensions, illness, disability and carers schemes; the full-year cost of jobseeker's pay-related benefit, introduced earlier this year; and continued support for over 50,000 beneficiaries of temporary protection from Ukraine including lone parents, pensioners and other vulnerable cohorts."
Minister for Social Protection, Dara Calleary TD said: "I believe that the measures I am announcing today - with a total value of over €1.15 billion - will make a huge difference to the lives of the people we serve and, through them to the communities, in which we all live."
Mr Calleary said that the Government would ensure that we get rid of the means test for the carers allowance, as per the Programme for Government, but that the Budget has taken very targeted measures in this area, particularly on child poverty.
"I'm confident that the combination of the child support payment increase, and the budget for that, with the working family payment changes, would be higher than what many are proposing what would be the second tier child benefit payment".
However, People Before Profit TD, Paul Murphy said: "Ordinary people get a measly €10 extra a week in social welfare payments and an even measlier €5 extra fuel allowance - a drop in the ocean when grocery prices are up a third in the last four years."
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Social Justice Ireland said the Government "had prioritised an expensive and inefficient VAT cut [for food businesses], which expert advice says won't sufficiently reduce restaurant closures, over abolishing the means test for carers, making substantial investment in addressing child poverty or an appropriate cost of disability payment.
"The failure to index social welfare payments to wages, and to adequately increase the weekly rate copper-fastens already widening income divides and condemns vulnerable households to a winter of prolonged hardship with persistently high food and energy prices.
"The €10 increase in core social welfare rates fails to compensate for the damage that inflation continues to wreak on poorer households. A €25 boost was the minimum required for Government to benchmark rates to 27.5% of average weekly earnings (a target set in 2007). This would allow households to buy essentials routinely, not as treats."
Family Carers Ireland said Budget 2026 includes some positive measures but offers little comfort to families already under financial strain.
Catherine Cox, head of communications and policy, said: "Today's announcement shifts the numbers but not the reality for many family carers. Budget 2026 will expand who can access carer’s allowance, but the payment remains completely inadequate, and today’s announcements will do little for those already in receipt of the full rate which will rise by just €10 to €270 per week. This increase equates to less than 6 cents per hour for someone providing 24-hour care. This is nowhere near a fair or adequate income."
