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<\/p>\nHere are the social welfare and cost of living changes to note for May<\/p>\n
14:39, 13 Apr 2026Updated 14:43, 13 Apr 2026<\/p>\n
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Stock image(Image: Elizabeth Fernandez\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
May is right around the corner and there are some social welfare <\/a>and tax changes to take note of.<\/p>\n These include the end of a major social welfare scheme<\/a> and a payment date change. Here’s everything you need to know coming up in May:<\/p>\n Fuel Allowance<\/p>\n The Fuel Allowance will end on May 1 following an extension due to rising energy costs as a result of the conflict in the Middle East. The Fuel Allowance season normally begins in late September of each year and ends in April. The 2025\/2026 Fuel Allowance season started on Monday, 22 September 2025 and it is paid for 28 weeks.<\/p>\n The scheme has now been extended until May 1 due to the recent increases in fuel costs. The Fuel Allowance is worth \u20ac38 per week, so the extension is worth a total of \u20ac152 for eligible households.<\/p>\n May Bank Holiday<\/p>\n Some social welfare recipients can expect to get payments early in May due to the Bank Holiday weekend. Banks and post offices will be closed on Monday, May 4, meaning payments due that day will instead be paid on the prior Friday or Saturday.<\/p>\n Carbon Tax<\/p>\n Following major protests over the fuel crisis last week, the Government have postponed a scheduled increase of the carbon tax rate which was due to come into May until the Budget in October.<\/p>\n Want to see more of the stories you love from Dublin Live? Making us your preferred source on Google<\/a> means you\u2019ll get more of our exclusives, top stories and must-read content straight away. To add Dublin Live as a preferred source, simply click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Join our Dublin Live breaking news service on WhatsApp. Click this link <\/a>to receive your daily dose of Dublin Live content.<\/p>\n We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don\u2019t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you\u2019re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here are the social welfare and cost of living changes to note for May 14:39, 13 Apr 2026Updated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,943,61,60,11258,10243],"class_list":{"0":"post-397253","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-cost-of-living","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-social-welfare","13":"tag-your-money"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}