Back-to-school grants cost state €80m

ALMOST €80 million has been paid out by the state to 160,000 families in need of help with the costs of sending their children back to school.

The record figure – up from €67m last year – may yet rise as another 1,500 applications for the Back-to-School Clothing and Footwear Allowance (BSCFA) were still being processed in mid-October by Health Service Executive (HSE) staff. At one point in mid-August more than 33,000 applications – more than one-in-five received at that point – had yet to be even processed by HSE staff.

Between 6,000 and 7,000 families were applying each week as schools re-opened in late August and early September.

However, while that rate slowed during September, a surge of 5,000 late applications in the final week of last month helped bring the number of applications to a record 189,794 by last Friday week. Just 1,562 of these had yet to be processed, almost half of them from families in the south-east region of Carlow, Kilkenny, south Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford.

The total payout by the HSE on behalf of the Department of Social Protection has reached €77.467m, almost one third of which has gone to 54,485 families in Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow.

The BSCFA has been paid to 160,444 families, but cases where payment was refused are still under review by staff in some HSE regions.

In 2009, almost 140,000 families received payments under the scheme and Social Protection Minister Éamon O Cuív secured an €82m budget for the BCSFA in anticipation of an extra 18,000 families becoming eligible for support this year.

The payments to date in 2010 average around €480 per household, with allowances ranging from €200 for primary school- aged children to €300 for those in second-level education and full- time students aged 18 to 22. An additional €215 is payable in respect of 18-year-olds for whom a family receives compensatory child benefit. The income limits depend on the number of children and whether they are in a single or two -parent household. The maximum weekly income is €410.10 for a lone parent with one child and €563.60 for a couple, with both limits rising by €29.80 for each additional child.