Budget 2012 has cut Child Benefit up to €240 a year per child, which amounts to a fall in income of €696 for a family with four children.

The Budget, announced yesterday by Finance Minister Michael Noonan, cut monthly payments by between €10 and €20 per child, depending on how many are in the family.

For the first two children, the rate is being cut from €140 to €130 each a month.

It will drop from €148 to €130 for the third child, and from €160 to €140 for the fourth and each subsequent child, The Irish Independent reports.

Meanwhile, the Budget left in place the huge gap in income tax levels between single income and double income married families created by tax individualisation.

Tax individualisation means that married people are assessed as individuals, with no regard to their mutual obligations to each other.

The effect is that couples cannot avail of each other’s tax credits.

Under the Budget, a single income married couple on €40,000 a year will pay €2,240 in income tax per annum.

By comparison, a married couple jointly earning €40,000 pays only €1,400 in income tax per annum.

A one-income married couple on €60,000 a year will pay €10,062 per annum in income tax, while the income tax burden for a double income married couple earning the same amount (assuming the first spouse earn €40k and the other earns €20k) is only just over half that amount, at €5,400.

Further, a cohabiting couple where one earns €40,000 and the other €20,000 will pay €6,912, more than €3,000 less per annum than a single income married couple on €60,000.