119,000 families get costs support
The Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance was paid automatically three weeks ago to more than 105,000 households in which 200,000 children qualified.
In addition to the ā¬26.5m which they received, the department has already paid out over ā¬4.1m to a further 13,600 applicants who made claims for the allowance since June ā with 1,200, or around one-in-12 applicants unsuccessful.
The payments are ā¬100 for each eligible child aged four to 11 and ā¬200 for those 18 to 22, but adult children must be in second-level education to qualify. There were 14,500 applications processed by July 15 last year but that figure had risen to 27,000 by August 6. However, forms for claims under the scheme were not made available until June 12 this year, 10 days later than in 2014.
The number of families who received an automatic payment is down from 114,300 last year, but there have been no changes to the income limits for eligibility.
Also, the Back to Work Family Dividend has been included as a qualifying payment, meaning income from it is not assessed when entitlement is being examined.
āFewer families received an automatic payment this year as there are fewer people in receipt of qualifying payments, for example, jobseekerās allowance,ā the Department of Social Protection said.
More than 39,000 applications have been made so far and the department was dealing with applications received on July 9 at the end of last week. Weekly claims peaked at 6,780 a fortnight ago but fell nearer to 6,000 last week.
Despite fewer automatic payments and applications being at similar levels to last year, the ā¬44.3m set aside for the scheme is nearly ā¬2m more than last yearās spend.
Application forms are available in social welfare offices and Intreo centres, or on request by texting āForm BTSCFAā, name, and address to 51909; emailing bscfa@welfare.ie; or phoning 1890 66 22 44 or 071 9193302
