Social welfare payments 2026

Minister for Social Protection, Dara Calleary TD, announced a Social Protection Budget package worth over €1.15 billion in ongoing measures for 2026, building on the €2.6 billion package delivered in 2025.

This guide covers social welfare payments in 2026, explains how savings affect means-tested payments and what this means for deposit accounts.

The social welfare system is government-provided financial support for people who might need help, for example if they are unemployed, sick, disabled, retired, or single parents.

There are three different types of social welfare payment in Ireland:

• Social insurance payments – you qualify for social insurance payments if you have enough insurance contributions, and meet the specific conditions
• Social assistance payments (also knowns as means-tested payments) – you can claim social assistance payments if you do not have enough pay related social insurance (PRSI) contributions to qualify for the equivalent social insurance-based payments
• Universal payments – to qualify for universal payments, you must meet specific personal circumstances

As part of Budget 2026, Minister Dara Calleary TD announced the following updates, effective from January:

• €10 increase to most weekly core rates, including State Pensions, Jobseeker’s, Disability, Carer’s and One-Parent Family Payment.
• State Pension (non-contributory): €288 (ages 66–79) and €298 (ages 80+).
• Jobseeker’s, Disability Allowance and One-Parent Family Payment (maximum personal rate): €254 per week.
• Carer’s Allowance: €270 (under 66); €308 (66 and over).
• Carer’s Benefit: €271 per week.
• Child Support Payment (formerly Increase for a Qualified Child): €58 (under 12) / €78 (aged 12 and over).
• Fuel Allowance: €38 per week (+€5) for eligible households.
• Working Family Payment: income limits increased by €60 per week across all family sizes.
• Carer’s Allowance income disregard (from July 2026): €1,000 (single) / €2,000 (couple).
• Domiciliary Care Allowance: €380 per month (+€20).
• Christmas Bonus 2025: 100% of the normal weekly rate, payable to approximately 1.47 million long-term recipients in December 2025.
• Auto-enrolment pension scheme (MyFutureFund): begins 1 January 2026, with contributions of 1.5% (employee), 1.5% (employer), and 0.5% (State).
• Families receiving the Working Family Payment will newly qualify for the Fuel Allowance — payable from March 2026, backdated to January 2026.

For 2025, the Christmas Bonus equalled 100% of the normal weekly payment for eligible long-term recipients.

The Christmas Bonus was paid in the first week of December to people getting a qualifying social welfare payment. Fuel Allowance alone doesn’t qualify, but those receiving it alongside a long-term payment (e.g. State Pension or Disability Allowance) are eligible.

The disability allowance is a weekly allowance paid to people with a disability, which can be claimed from 16 years of age. If you qualify for disability allowance, you may also get extra social welfare benefits with your payment and other supplementary welfare payments. Disability allowance is a means-tested payment, which means that the Department of Social Protection examines all your sources of income before deciding how much you are entitled to.

If you or your spouse, civil partner, or cohabitant set aside a portion of your weekly social welfare payment, these savings will be considered as part of your means, as well as savings from most other sources.

This is the formula for assessing the value of capital including property (excluding your own home), savings and investments:

If you have a joint account, legally the total amount in the account is owned by each of you. As a result, it can be assessed in full against each of you. However, if you and your spouse, civil partner, or cohabitant are both getting means-tested payments, it will be assessed on a shared basis or against only one of you.

When applying for disability allowance, you can have up to €50,000 in savings and still receive the full rate of payment; the next €10,000 is assessed at €1 per thousand, the next €10,000 at €2 per thousand, with the rest assessed at €4 per thousand.

If you have money to put away, and want to quickly and easily compare and open savings accounts, register for a Raisin Account and apply today. Opening an account with Raisin is free, and you’ll find competitive interest rates from a range of European banks.