Families face wait for school allowance

Claims for financial assistance with back-to-school costs are slowing but around 4,000 families applying this week will have to wait until mid-September to receive payments.

The Department of Social Protection has already paid out €31m in the past five weeks to more than 136,000 families, with some schools set to reopen next week.

About 28,000 out of the 49,000 applications received so far this summer for the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance have yet to be finalised. The number of claimsdropped from nearly 6,800 a week in late July to just over 4,000 in each of the last two weeks.