The purpose of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme is to provide a basic weekly allowance to people who have little or no income. Any person living in the State who satisfies a means test and who has applied for any other benefit or assistance to which they may be entitled, may be eligible to receive assistance under the SWA scheme. Assistance may be given in the form of a basic payment, a supplement or an exceptional needs payment.
The legislation governing the SWA scheme makes provision for a health board to make a single payment to help meet essential, once-off, exceptional expenditure, which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. These payments are known as ENPs. There is no automatic entitlement to an ENP.
Expenditure on ENPs was between £21 million and £22 million in each of the last three years. Expenditure on the SWA scheme totalled £209 million in 1999, of which ENPs accounted for £21.9 million or 10.5%. In 1998 expenditure was £180.6 million of which ENPs accounted for £21.4 million or 11.8%. In 1997, total expenditure on the SWA scheme was £158.2 million, of which ENPs accounted for £21.6 million or 13.7%. While the absolute value of ENP expenditure has been more or less constant over the last three years, it has declined as a proportion of overall SWA expenditure.
Details of expenditure on ENPs for the years 1987, 1988 and 1989 are not available as expenditure on the SWA scheme was not then broken down into different payments. Total expenditure on the SWA scheme was £31.9 million in 1987, £34.3 million in 1988 and £36.5 million in 1989.
The estimate for expenditure on the overall SWA scheme for the next three years is £239.2 million in 2000, £268.0 million in 2001 and £299.3 million in 2002. The estimate for expenditure on ENPs over these years is £24 million in 2000, £26 million in 2001 and £28 million in 2002.
