Brian Stanley
Question:102. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Social Protection the cost-of-living supports that her Department is providing households which do not receive the working family payment scheme. [38130/22]
View answerThursday, 14 July 2022
Questions (102)
Written answers
The Government has introduced a range of measures to support families with the increased cost of living. Just last week, we announced changes to three initiatives to assist families with back to school costs at a total additional cost of €67 million.
As a result, the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance, is being increased by €100 for each eligible child under the scheme. Consequently, the amount being paid for each qualified child aged 4 to 11 years will be €260 and the rate payable for each eligible child aged 12 and over will be €385. It is estimated that some 151,000 families will benefit from this measure in respect of over 262,000 children. This follows increases in rates which had already been provided for in Budget 2022.
In addition, the School Meals Programme is being extended to an additional 310 schools who were designated as DEIS schools in March and students availing of the school transport scheme will not be charged fees for the next academic year.
In May, an extra Fuel Allowance payment of €100 was paid to all households who were in receipt of the Fuel Allowance from my Department in the last week of the Fuel Allowance season. Over 371,000 households benefitted from this payment at a cost of approximately €37.1 million.
The Department of Social Protection also provides additional income supports for individuals who need financial assistance. Under Additional Needs Payments, the Community Welfare Service of the Department can make discretionary payments to help people with additional costs that could not reasonably be expected to be met out of their weekly income. Already this year to the end of May, Additional Needs Payments totalling €16.8 million have been made in relation to over 27,800 exceptional and urgent needs payments applications. The Department wants to ensure that people in need are aware of the support available to them from the community welfare service and so we have run an extensive advertising campaign to further promote the Additional Needs Payment scheme.
These supports are in addition to Budget 2022 which contained the largest ever social welfare package giving 1.4 million people a €5 increase in weekly payments, and more if they have dependents.
The Budget also included targeted measures to support those most vulnerable to poverty, including increases to qualified child dependent payments. As a result, rates for a qualified child aged under 12 increased by €2 to €40 per week, and for a qualified child aged 12 or older by €3 to €48 per week. These higher rates have been in place since the first week of January.
The supports provided by my Department are kept under review, particularly in the context of the Budget.