Social welfare Ireland: Date confirmed for parents to receive final double child benefit payment

The final double Child Benefit payment is set to land in accounts within weeks.

The double payments, which were announced as part of Budget 2025 back in October, are €280 per child.

The first one was paid earlier this month, while the second one will be paid within weeks.

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Here's everything you need to know about them, when they will be paid and to whom.

When is the final double Child Benefit payment?

The December double payment will land in accounts on the 3rd of December. 667,000 families, in respect of over 1.2 million children, will receive the double boost.

How much is it?

It is a double payment of the usual €140 payment rate per child, making it €280 per child.

However, if you have twins, you get one-and-a-half times the normal monthly rate of Child Benefit for each child, so it will be double of this rate. For triplets and other multiple births, Child Benefit is paid at double the normal monthly rate for each child.

Do I need to apply?

The payment is automatically doubled to anyone usually in receipt of Child Benefit, there is no need to specifically apply for the double payments.

Will there be anymore double Child Benefit payments?

As part of Budget 2025, double payments were announced for both November and December, with no plans for further double weeks. However, from January they will be rolling out a new Newborn Baby Grant of a triple Child Benefit rate, paid to all parents of newborns for their first Child Benefit payment. The €420 lump sum will be paid to all parents of children born from December 2024.

As part of the general election manifesto, Fine Gael have proposed a permanent double child benefit bonus, to be paid in the month of August, to assist families facing back-to-school expenses. The policy, entitled 'Giving our children the best start in life', also calls for the introduction of a Pay-Related Parents' Benefit. This would envisage the rate of parents' benefit to be more closely aligned to a mother or father’s income in an effort to encourage them to spend valuable time with their newborn children.