Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 section 216

Amount of increases payable in respect of qualified child in certain cases

Section 216 provides that the qualified child increase payable with farm assist is halved where the claimant's spouse, civil partner, or cohabitant is not a qualified adult or falls within a specific category under section 214(2).

• Farm assist may include an increase for each qualified child who normally lives with both the claimant (or beneficiary) and their spouse, civil partner, or cohabitant.
• Where the claimant's spouse is not a qualified adult, or the spouse, civil partner, or cohabitant falls into the category described in section 214(2), the child increase is paid at half the normal rate.
• At current rates, this means the weekly child increase drops from €58.00 to €29.00 for a child under 12, and from €78.00 to €39.00 for a child aged 12 or over.
• This half-rate rule modifies the standard farm assist child increase provision in section 215(1) and must be read together with it.