Original research

Where the welfare system punishes work

We ran 312 real household shapes through our own benefits engines, at every wage from nothing to well above the average, and looked for the points where earning more money leaves a family with less. We found 554.

What this is, and what it is not. Every figure below is arithmetic on the published rules — the same rules the Departments publish, modelled by the same engines behind our calculators and pinned by 372 outcome tests. None of it is a decision from any Department, and no individual household should treat it as one. It is a map of where the rules interact badly, not advice about your own claim.

The worst one: €541 a week to stand still

A family on Disability Allowance with three children and a partner with no income, already working 20 hours, is the sharpest case the sweep found.

At €385 a week gross, that household has €933.37 a week to live on. If they more than double their earnings to €900 a week, they have €901.97 — €31.40 a week worse off for earning €515 a week more.

They do not get back to where they started until €926 a week. That is €541 a week of extra earnings, more than doubling their gross pay, before a single euro of it reaches them.

Traps — how far you must climb to stand still

68 household shapes have to climb a long way before extra work pays anything.

Household	Starting at	Must earn more
on Disability Allowance, 2 children under 12 and 1 over 12, partner with no income	€385/wk	€541/wk
on Disability Allowance, 3 children under 12, partner with no income	€385/wk	€520/wk
on Disability Allowance, 1 child under 12 and 1 over 12, partner with no income	€429/wk	€436/wk
on Disability Allowance, 1 child under 12 and 1 over 12, partner with no income, in council housing	€429/wk	€436/wk
on Disability Allowance, 2 children under 12, partner with no income	€429/wk	€416/wk
on Disability Allowance, 2 children under 12, partner with no income, in council housing	€429/wk	€416/wk
on Disability Allowance, one child under 12, partner with no income	€385/wk	€399/wk
on Disability Allowance, one child under 12, partner with no income, in council housing	€385/wk	€399/wk
on Disability Allowance, no children, partner with no income	€385/wk	€390/wk
on Disability Allowance, no children, partner with no income, in council housing	€385/wk	€390/wk
on Disability Allowance, 2 children under 12 and 1 over 12, no partner	€432/wk	€318/wk
on Disability Allowance, 3 children under 12, no partner	€432/wk	€297/wk

Cliffs — a single step of pay that loses money

75 points where a small rise in pay makes a household immediately poorer.

Household	At	Loses a year
on Jobseeker's Allowance, 1 child under 12 and 1 over 12, partner earning €300/wk	€569/wk	€1,032
on Jobseeker's Allowance, one child under 12, partner earning €300/wk	€451/wk	€1,021
on Disability Allowance, 2 children under 12, partner earning €300/wk	€259/wk	€1,015
on Disability Allowance, one child under 12, partner earning €300/wk	€169/wk	€1,014
on Disability Allowance, 1 child under 12 and 1 over 12, partner earning €300/wk	€215/wk	€1,014
on Disability Allowance, one child under 12, no partner	€883/wk	€1,002
on Disability Allowance, one child under 12, partner with no income	€880/wk	€1,002
on One-Parent Family Payment, one child under 12, no partner	€883/wk	€1,002
on One-Parent Family Payment, one child under 12, partner with no income	€880/wk	€1,002
on Jobseeker's Allowance, one child under 12, no partner	€883/wk	€1,002
on Jobseeker's Allowance, one child under 12, partner with no income	€880/wk	€1,002
on One-Parent Family Payment, 2 children under 12, partner earning €300/wk	€640/wk	€1,002

Effective rates — what the next €100 is really worth

158 points where the next €100 of pay is worth far less than it looks, and often less than nothing. For comparison, the highest rate of income tax in Ireland is 40%.

Household	Earning	Effective rate
on Disability Allowance, no children, partner with no income	€622/wk	123%
on Disability Allowance, 2 children under 12, partner earning €300/wk	€552/wk	123%
on Disability Allowance, 1 child under 12 and 1 over 12, partner earning €300/wk	€577/wk	123%
on Disability Allowance, one child under 12, partner earning €300/wk	€495/wk	122%
on Disability Allowance, no children, no partner	€444/wk	122%
on Disability Allowance, 2 children under 12, partner earning €500/wk	€427/wk	122%
on Disability Allowance, 1 child under 12 and 1 over 12, partner earning €500/wk	€445/wk	122%
on Disability Allowance, no children, partner with no income, in council housing	€622/wk	119%
on Disability Allowance, no children, no partner, in council housing	€444/wk	118%
on Disability Allowance, one child under 12, partner earning €500/wk	€370/wk	116%
on Disability Allowance, one child under 12, partner with no income	€577/wk	116%
on Disability Allowance, no children, partner earning €300/wk	€435/wk	115%

How this was produced

312 household shapes — combinations of payment, children, partner income and housing — were run across the whole wage range through the engines behind Better Off Working and its UK equivalent.
Those engines model 25 Irish and 11 UK payments with dated rate series, and are checked by 372 outcome tests against the Departments' own worked examples.
Every money figure they use is tied to an official source and re-fetched automatically, so this page cannot quietly drift out of date.
Uncommon household shapes were excluded. The sweep flags them and they are not listed here — a trap almost nobody is in would be a distraction.

Using this

Journalists, researchers and public representatives are welcome to use any of it, with a link back. The full dataset behind this page is published openly as JSON, CC BY 4.0, and we will run any specific household you want checked — get in touch through our contact page.

This page is generated, not typed. It is rebuilt from the engines whenever the rules change, so the findings stay true to the current rates rather than to the day someone wrote them down. Last generated 10 September 2026.

Find out what this means for your household

These are patterns across thousands of cases. Our free calculator does the same arithmetic for your own circumstances, and shows every step.

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