Vol. 505 No. 7
24 Mr. McDowell asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the level at which the back to school clothing and footwear allowance will be paid in 1999; when the allow ance will be paid; if he will consider earlier payment of the allowance to allow parents greater opportunities to shop around; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14594/99]
The back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance scheme is administered on behalf of my Department by the health boards. The scheme is designed to assist certain recipients of social welfare and health board payments with the cost of children's school uniforms and footwear. Certain people on low incomes who are in receipt of family income supplement may also qualify for assistance.
In order to qualify for the allowance, the claim must be in respect of a qualified child, the applicant must be in receipt of a qualifying payment and they must satisfy a specified means test. A qualified child is one who falls into one of the age groups specified for the scheme and in respect of whom a child dependant allowance is payable.
The means test takes account of any income over and above the appropriate rate of widows and widowers contributory pension plus £5 where the guardian is single, and contributory old age pension plus £5 where the guardian is one of a couple. Where the income of a household exceeds these limits, the back to school clothing and footwear allowance is not payable.
Under the scheme an allowance of £43 is payable in respect of qualified children from two to 11 years and an allowance of £58 is payable in respect of qualified children from 12 to 22 years.
In 1998, expenditure on back to school clothing and footwear allowance amounted to £10.2 million in respect of 209,300 children. Payments were made to 119,000 children aged between two and 11 years, to 82,900 who were aged between 12 and 17 years and 7,300 who were aged between 18 and 22 years.
The scheme opens for applications in all health boards from 1 June each year. My Department has requested the boards to ensure that the majority of payments are made by 31 July 1999 to enable parents to make the necessary purchases in the traditional back to school shopping month of August. Based on the experience of health board staff this represents the optimum time for payment of this allowance.
The health boards have advised that the scheme operated satisfactorily in 1998 with the vast majority of qualified families throughout the country receiving their payments in good time to make provision for their children's needs.
As the purpose of the scheme is to assist with the clothing needs of school children in the forthcoming school year, a balance needs to be struck between paying the allowance too early and too late. The present arrangements are satisfactory and I have no plans to advise health boards to make earlier payments.
