Cross-border Family Benefits

The Border People project provides information to citizens who cross the Irish border regularly; to live, work, retire or study. It is recognised as an important online source of cross-border information available to citizens on the island of Ireland.

Although it was designed predominately as a signposting service the initiative receives direct enquiries from cross-border workers on a daily basis, and unfortunately a lot of those enquiries are driven by the administrative burden placed on families trying to apply for Family Benefits.

Under EU legislation the country of employment usually pays Family Benefits even if the family reside in another EU state. This applies to the many families living in the Irish border region. How the EU legislation is implemented by the Irish and UK authorities frequently results in excessive delays in payments and as a consequence many families are struggling financially.

This briefing paper explores the issue in some detail.

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