€4.5m in childcare allowance for children living abroad

The Government paid €4.5m in childcare allowances for children living outside of Ireland last year, new figures reveal.

The overseas Early Childcare Supplement payments quadrupled between 2007 and 2008 from €1.1m to €4.5m, the Department of Social and Family Affairs has confirmed.

This year, non-resident children are expected to account for €7m of the childcare payments because a massive backlog of arrears is slowly being cleared.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Social and Family Affairs said the claims relating to children residing outside of Ireland are complex because it is necessary to cross-check details with European authorities. Hence, significant backlogs and delays have occurred.

When the childcare payment was launched in 2006, it emerged that children of migrant workers who are resident in their home country were entitled to the annual €1,000 payment, even though it was designed to help spefically with childcare costs.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/state-paid-836445m-for-children-living-abroad-1658189.html

Barnardos study on Irish childrens future

In the future, children will be mobile and will most likely live in another EU country at some stage, the report finds. They are also expected to be more self-reliant, changing jobs many times until they finish work at aged 70.

They will be drawn to business and creative careers rather than traditional professions like teaching , it is predicted.

Family life will be one of the slowest areas of change. Most children will be born to parents in their 30s living in suburbia and will be either an only child or have only one or two siblings.

However children born to lone parents, to a large family of low income or in a deprived area are likely to have limited educational and job opportunities.

Children at risk of poverty will most likely leave school early with minimal qualifications and low literacy and numeracy skills, the report finds.

The outlook for the health of tomorrow's children is grim as they are predicted to overeat, and to lack exercise.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/1105/1225523373269.html

State benefits to non-resident children soar by 2,000%

FOREIGN-based families of non-nationals living here will get a massive €15m in child benefit payments from the State this year.

The cost of child benefit payments for non-resident children to Irish taxpayers has increased by more than 2,000 per cent in the past four years.

The payments have been bolstered by the introduction of the new Early Child Supplement, which was introduced in 2006 and pays €1,100 for each child under the age of six to assist with childcare costs.

Under EU law, Ireland's Child Benefit payment, formerly known as Children's Allowance, is paid to 3,800 families in respect of 6,840 children living outside the country.

As a growing number of European nationals come to Ireland, the numbers of non-national workers claiming the benefits in Ireland has increased more than twelve-fold in the past four years.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/state-benefits-to-nonresident-children-soar-by-2000pc-1393775.html