Back to school bill €5m over budget after applications soar

THE bill for helping families with the cost of school uniforms could be €5 million over budget when the remaining 19,500 applications are processed.

Social Protection Minister Joan Burton’s department had paid out €72m to almost 160,000 families up to the start of last month — almost the same number of recipients as all of last year.

But another 35,000 applications for the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance were still to be processed at the time and a further 10,000 families applied up to the closing date on September 30.