There are many cost of living changes coming into effect in less than two months, including payment increases, tax changes and much more – check out the full list here
Minister for Public Expenditure, Jack Chambers, and the Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe(Image: Collins)
Within a matter of weeks, there are a number of changes coming into effect thanks to Budget 2026.
The budget for 2026 was announced back on the 7th of October and while some measures are to come into effect in the final months of the year, a number of changes won’t come into effect until January.
These include payment increases, tax change and more.
The list of cost-of-living changes coming into effect from January 1st include:
- The maximum rate of most weekly social welfare payments will increase by €10
- The Child Support Payment weekly rate will increase by €8, from €50 to €58, for children under 12 and €16, from €62 to €78, for children aged 12 and over
- Working Family Payment income limits will increase by €60 a week for all family sizes.
- Working Family Payment will become a qualifying payment for Fuel Allowance in March 2026 but the payment will be backdated to January 2026.
- Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance will be extended to include children aged 2 and 3 (if they meet the other eligibility criteria).
- In January 2026, Domiciliary Care Allowance will increase by €20, from €360 to €380 per month.
- Fuel Allowance will increase by €5 to €38 per week.
- The top-up payment for people on Community Employment (CE), Tús and the Rural Social Scheme will increase by €5 to €32.50 per week. This is in addition to an increase of €10 for most weekly social welfare payments.
- The 2% rate band limit for USC will increase to €28,700 (from €27,382) from 1 January 2026.
- The national minimum wage will increase by 65 cents to €14.15 per hour from 1 January 2026.
- The lifetime limit on gains eligible for the Capital Gains Tax Revised Entrepreneur Relief will increase from €1 million to €1.5 million, for disposals made from 1 January 2026.
- Postgraduate students who are eligible for the postgraduate fee contribution grant will get €4,500 (previously €4,000). This does not apply to students getting the special rate of grant.
There are other changes from the budget expected to come into effect later in the year, such as the VAT rate on food and catering businesses, and hairdressing services, reducing to 9% from 13.5% in July and the weekly income limit for Carer’s Benefit will increase by €375 to €1,000 in July too.
The Christmas bonus is set to be paid out to thousands of social welfare recipients in the first week of December.
