Child Benefit Payment For Twins

I was told the other day and I checked it up on the citizens advice website, but for child benefit, one twin is paid 1.5 times the normal rate and hence for twins this amounts to being paid for 3 children. I thought about it and I cant really see how this could be justified (although there must be some justification whether you agree with or not). Can anybody enlighten me why this is the case ?

Multiple births

The rate of child benefit paid for twins will be 1.5 times the normal monthly rate for each child. Where the multiple birth involves three or more children, the rate of benefit paid is double the monthly rate, provided at least three of the children remain qualified.
In addition, a special 'once-off' grant of €635 is paid on all multiple births. Further 'once-off' grants of €635 are paid when the children are 4 years of age and 12 years of age.

because the cost of keeping multiples is much higher.

there's no re-using the same cot, car seat and other baby equipment.
there's no re-using the same school books, school uniforms etc.
very often a family will have to get a new car if they have multiples (particularly if they already have another child) to fit all the car seats.
double buggies cost more - triple buggies cost a fortune and have to be specially imported.
multiples are more likely to be born early and more likely to need hospital care (thoughout their childhood).
it's harder to get someone to mind multiples, so the chances or returning to workforce when maternity leave is up is diminished.
there are lots of other hidden costs in having multiples (and no, I don't have any) that justify this payment.

+ 1 Nige.

Also you only get one maternity leave payment with twins - at €280 a week for 26 weeks that's a saving to the govt so only fair that the parents get it back in enhanced Child benefit.

However in UK there is no such generosity for parents of multiples, I heard that the Irish govt is looking to 'review' multiples payments - such reviews rarely favour the recipient!

I do sometimes wonder if government policy is edging towards getting us wimmin back into the home, with the high cost of childcare (even more so for multiples). That would solve some of the unemployment mess right out for them!

But seriously, the enhanced payments are a huge help towards the cost of childcare without which many women could not afford to go back to the workforce.

Lotto Winner...come live in our house for a month and see how much it costs to have a 4 yr old , and his 18month old twin brothers in childcare while both their father and I go to work. They are extraordinary little people and they are very expensive little people too, but we with all of the mega costs involved we are pushed to the limits financially ( and physically!!) every single month. I chose to work outside the home because I am a public servant, my husband works in the private sector and therefore his job is no longer guaranteed in these times. The enhanced payment is a bonus but it only scraps the top of our 1900euro childcare bill that we have every month as well as the 2000euro mortgage repayments and the 400euro repayments we now have on the people carrier style car that we had to buy when the boys arrived!!! Maybe your user name indicate a recent win and that may explain why you find it difficult to comprehend why the parents of multiples are in receipt of a slightly larger payment for their children.

fluffy47 said:

Lotto Winner...come live in our house for a month and see how much it costs to have a 4 yr old , and his 18month old twin brothers in childcare while both their father and I go to work.

Click to expand...

Does it cost more than having a 4yr old a 3 year old and an 18 month old in childcare?

The difference with three single babies and twins+1 is that you will have had three maternity leaves instead of two- with the associated periods off work that you can take other children out of childcare so more scope for savings.

You will have had breaks in between each of the three and so the childcare costs ramps up over a much longer period rather than hitting all at once for the twins.

And finally, most people plan for their children. So with 3, you may have been able to plan out what and when you can afford to have them. No financial planning for two at once!

And all that is on top of the points made by Nige!

Well put Mrmr.

Nige said:

because the cost of keeping multiples is much higher.

there's no re-using the same cot, car seat and other baby equipment.
there's no re-using the same school books, school uniforms etc.
very often a family will have to get a new car if they have multiples (particularly if they already have another child) to fit all the car seats.
double buggies cost more - triple buggies cost a fortune and have to be specially imported.
multiples are more likely to be born early and more likely to need hospital care (thoughout their childhood).
it's harder to get someone to mind multiples, so the chances or returning to workforce when maternity leave is up is diminished.
there are lots of other hidden costs in having multiples (and no, I don't have any) that justify this payment.

Click to expand...

Exactly. I have a 5 year old and a 1 yr old. I reckon, excluding formula and nappies, that baby no. 1 cost me in the region of 8k in his first year and baby no 2 about 200 quid (maternity clothes, pram, moses basket, cot, sheets, car seat, changing table, baby bath, sling, breastfeeding cushion, baby clothes, steriliser, high chair, toys, baby books, lullaby CDs, bottles, nursing bras, shapeless post baby clothes all re-used! Books about how to be pregnant/how to be a mother bought in anxiety for no. 1 all tossed out the window. Only thing that was too manky to reuse was the baby chair and I got that as a present. Childcare costs the same as have a childminder in the home). New soothers, bottle teats,a few packets of baby rice and a few months worth of organic meat and veg to make freezable purees came I reckon to 200 euros or so.

If baby no 2 had come at the same time as baby no 1, I´d be in Stubbs Gazette by now.

Taking away the extra payment for twins in the CB would be the very stingiest and short termist of gestures. Think of all the extra taxes that all those twin Bs will be paying in the future to prop up the Irish State as it struggles to payback the shedloads of debt it has accumulated in the last 18 months.