Budget 2025: Full list of cost of living changes, including 'baby boost' and double payments

A recap of the headline measures from Budget 2025, including several designed to ease the burden felt by many in the cost of living crisis

The Government announced a whopping €2.2 billion social protection bonanza for Budget 2025 on Tuesday - hailed as one of the biggest ever seen in the country.

There has been a tidy €12 bump in weekly core social welfare rates and pensions for all recipients. Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys had been gunning for a €15 hike - and wanted to put pensioners and carers first in line ahead of those on Jobseeker's Allowance, reports Dublin Live.

But a universal €12 increase was eventually agreed. Other headline measures announced include:

• An October bonus double payment for welfare recipients, alongside another welfare Christmas bonus payment
• Universal electricity credits of €250, paid in two equal instalments before and after Christmas
• The expansion of the Fuel Allowance for people over 66
• Carers will receive an increased Carer's Support Grant of €2,000
• Self-employed people can now get Carer's Benefit
• A €200 Living Alone one-off payment
• Several cost-of-living payments from now until Christmas
• €420 "baby boost" for parents of newborns, starting in 2025
• Two double Child Benefit payments, in November and December, worth €280 per child
• Reduced VAT on electricity and gas extended until April
• Student and apprentice fees to be reduced by €1,000 in this academic year
• Public transport becomes free for children under 9
• New universal companion pass for people aged over 70 to bring a friend on public transport.
• 80c minimum wage rise
• Free schoolbooks up to Leaving Cert
• Junior Cert and Leaving Cert fees waived
• Rent Tax Credit to increase by €250
• Price of packet of cigarettes to rise by €1
• New vape tax of 50c per ml of e-liquid
• Hot school meals programme increases to all primary schools

READ MORE: Budget 2025 LIVE updates as €2 billion worth of cost-of-living measures unveiled to public

READ MORE: Budget 2025: Full list of all ten lump sum Social Welfare payments with one that's permanent

The Green Party secured a big win with a new "baby boost" set to kick in from next year. Currently, parents pocket €140 monthly in Child Benefit for each child. But the baby boost will see parents receive a one-time payment of €420 after their child arrives (the usual €140 - plus an extra €280). This new baby bonus will rollout from January 1, 2025.

Green Party leader and Minister for Children Roderic O'Gorman had prioritised this payment, arguing parents also face significant expenses even though he has overseen an average cut of 50 per cent in childcare fees over the last two years. He had previously suggested that parents of newborns should receive a quadruple Child Benefit payment worth €560 when their child was born.

Households will receive around 10 different one-off payments in the financial package, which will be paid out over the next few months. These include two double welfare payments, in October and at Christmas.

It is expected that the annual Christmas Bonus, worth 100 per cent of a typical social welfare weekly payment, will be paid out during the first week of December, like the years before - that will be around Monday, 2 December. The October payments are a new feature.

The cash boosts would be paid out in October, directly after the announcement of the Budget. Both of these bonus payments will include two double payments of Child Benefit, resulting in parents receiving €280 before the end of the year.

Additionally, several social welfare schemes can expect lump sum payments, with amounts varying from €100 to €400. The following groups will get one-off payments:

• A €400 disability support grant
• A €400 carer’s support grant; a €300 fuel allowance payment
• A €200 living alone allowance, a €400 working family payment
• A €100 child support grant (which was formerly called the qualified child payment).

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