Working Family Payment (Detailed)

On a low income? Working Family Payment might help make a work option leave you better off. Many people are reluctant to take up a work option because they will lose their Medical Card. Working Family Payment is not taken into account in the Means Test for a Medical Card.

Working Family Payment (WFP) is a weekly tax-free payment for employees with children. It supports people who are on low pay. WFP used to be called Family Income Supplement (FIS).

You must be an employee to get WFP. You cannot get it if you are self-employed only.

You must have at least one child who normally lives with you or who you support financially. Your child must be under 18 (or between 18 and 22 if they are in full-time day education).

To get WFP, your average weekly family income must be under a certain amount for your family size. The WFP payment you get is 60% of the difference between your average weekly family income and the WFP income limit for your family size.

How Do You Get The Working Family Payment?

You must meet a range of conditions:

• You are an employee

• You work 38 or more hours per fortnight (in any combination of hours). You can combine your weekly hours with your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant's hours to meet this condition. You cannot use time spent in self-employment (or on Community Employment, Tús, JobBridge or the Rural Social Scheme) to meet this condition.

• Your job is likely to last at least 3 months

• You have at least one child who normally lives with you

• You earn less than the WFP income limit set for your family size

• You must pay tax and PRSI in Ireland

WFP is paid for one year (52 weeks), as long as you meet the conditions. It does not change if your earnings from work go up or down during that year. After 52 weeks, you can apply again for WFP.

Apprentices can get the WFP as long as they meet the rules for getting WFP mentioned above. Apprentices are considered to have employed status for WFP.

If the number of hours you work each week falls to under 38 hours a fortnight, you are no longer entitled to WFP.

Sometimes, there is a significant change in income. Normally, WFP stays the same but there is a way of making WFP reflect the new income:

1. Contact the WFP Section to tell them of the change in circumstances and ask for the current claim to be closed

2. Re-apply for WFP

Other Benefits That Can Be Paid With WFP

If you are getting WFP, you may also be entitled to the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance.

The Back to Work Family Dividend (BTWFD) and WFP can be paid together. The BTWFD is not taken into account in the income test for WFP.

If you are parenting alone, you may be entitled to WFP in addition to your One-Parent Family Payment

If you are getting WFP and become ill, you can continue to get WFP with Illness Benefit for up to 36 days (6 weeks).

Other Benefits That Cannot Be Paid With WFP

You cannot get WFP, if you are on one of these schemes or social welfare payments:

• Community Employment Scheme

• Rural Social Scheme

• Tús

• Jobseeker's Benefit

• Jobseeker's Allowance

• Jobseeker's Transitional Payment

• Farm Assist

• Part-Time Job Incentive Scheme

However, a spouse, civil partner or cohabitant can claim WFP while you are getting one of these payments. But an Increase for a Qualified Adult (IQA) will no longer be paid.

Maintenance and WFP

A separated parent can apply for WFP if they meet the qualifying conditions and:

• They are living with the children or

• They are wholly maintaining their ex-spouse, ex-civil partner, or ex-cohabitant with whom the children are living (the ex-spouse or ex-partner cannot have more than €100 a week income in their own right, and they cannot be married, in a civil partnership or cohabiting)

An ex-partner who is included in the WFP claim cannot get WFP in their own right, or be included in another person’s WFP claim, during the 52-week period of the WFP.

If a separated parent is paying maintenance, they may qualify for WFP if they are wholly maintaining the parent who the children are living with. Because only one payment can be made for a family, the parent you are receiving maintenance must not be getting WFP.

Maintenance for the adult is assessed in the means test for WFP (maintenance payments for a child is not assessed). If you are getting maintenance from more than one person, all the payments are added together and the total is assessed as means.

Some of the maintenance payment that you spend on housing will not be counted as income for the WFP means test. Your housing costs (your rent or mortgage repayment) up to a maximum of €95.23 per week can be offset against maintenance payments. Half the balance is then assessed as means. You must provide proof of rent or mortgage payments.

Rate of Working Family Payment

The DSP will assess your household income in a means test. It compares your total income to the WFP income limit for your family size.

If you earn less than the WFP income limit, you may get WFP.

Your WFP will be 60% of the difference between the WFP income limit for your family size and your assessable income. The combined income of a couple (who are married, in a civil partnership or cohabiting) is taken into account when calculating assessable income.

Assessable income

Income that is taken into account for the Working Family Payment is called 'assessable income'. It can include:

• Your assessable earnings and your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant's assessable earnings. (Assessable earnings are gross pay minus tax, employee PRSI, Universal Social Charge and superannuation (including the Public Service Pension Levy and contributions to Personal Retirement Savings Accounts.) Income from working as a home help is assessed.

• Extra income you or your spouse, civil partner, or cohabitant have from employment (such as pay for overtime, bonuses, allowances or commission)

• Any income you or your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant have from self-employment

• Income from occupational pensions

• Income you or your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant may have including social welfare payments

• All family income from carer's payments (Carer's Allowance or Carer's Benefit)

• Rental income from the letting of property or land (the capital value is not assessed). The gross rental income is assessed and you cannot deduct mortgage payments or other expenses. Certain income from rent is not included in the means test – see ‘Income from rent’ below.

Generally, all financial compensation is taken into account. However, certain types of compensation are not assessed as income. You can find a list of compensation payments not assessed as income.

The WFP income test does not assess capital. This includes property you own, bank accounts and cars. The following payments do not count as family income:

• Child Benefit

• Guardian's payments

• Supplementary Welfare Allowance

• Domiciliary Care Allowance

• Foster Care Allowance

• Rent Allowance for tenants affected by the de-control of rents

• Rent Supplement

• Fuel Allowance

• Maintenance payments for a child

• Income from a charitable organisation

• Income from providing accommodation to students studying Irish in Gaeltacht areas under a scheme administered by the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media

• Payments under the 1916 Bursary Fund from the Department of Education

• University payments made under the Higher Education Scholarships for Adult Learners of up to a maximum of €7,000 per year

• Scholarship payments under UCD’s Cothrom na Féine Scholarship Programme of up to €7,000 per year

• SUSI maintenance grant

• Payments under the Department of Education's school transport scheme for children with special educational needs

• Any income your children may have

• Payments made under an ex gratia scheme to people who were admitted to and worked in the Magdalen Laundries

• Payments made under the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme

• Payments made under the Stardust Redress Scheme 2024

Rental income from the letting of property or land is assessed and you cannot deduct mortgage payments or other expenses. However, you can get up to €14,000 per year for renting out a room in your own home without it affecting your Working Family Payment. The maximum income disregard is €269.23 a week (€14,000 per year).

Calculating your income for WFP

The Department of Social Protection (DSP) calculates your assessable earnings over a certain period of time.

Because WFP is paid over 52 weeks, the DSP tries to calculate your average earnings over a similar period of time. Normally they will use your earnings up to the date of your application. If you are newly in employment, your average weekly income is calculated from when you started work with that employer.

If your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant is self-employed, their income over the 12-month period before you apply is used to work out their average weekly income. Again, to qualify, your average weekly family income must be below the WFP income limit for your family size.

Working Family Payment income limits from 2 January 2025

• 1 child: weekly family income is less than €705

• 2 children: weekly family income is less than €806

• 3 children: weekly family income is less than €907

• 4 children: weekly family income is less than €998

• 5 children: weekly family income is less than €1124

• 6 children: weekly family income is less than €1240

• 7 children: weekly family income is less than €1376

• 8 children: weekly family income is less than €1472

If you qualify for WFP, you get a minimum of €20 each week. You can use the DSP’s benefit of work estimator to work out the total amount you would get working (including any Working Family Payment). It also compares this amount to what you are getting in jobseeker payments (including Rent Supplement). If you are getting WFP, you may also be entitled to the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance.

How to apply for the Working Family Payment

To apply, fill in an application form for Working Family Payment (pdf). You can get a copy of this form in your Intreo Centre or Social Welfare Branch Office.

You can get help filling it in at an Intreo Centre, Social Welfare Branch Office or Citizens Information Centre. To make sure that your application for WFP is processed as quickly as possible, you should send your most recent payslips with your application form. You can apply for the Working Family Payment online at MyWelfare.ie if you have a MyGovID verified account.

You will need to provide your bank details and information about your (and your partner’s) income and most recent payslips.

If you think you have been wrongly refused WFP, you can appeal this decision.