The Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance (BSCFA) scheme operates from the beginning of June to the end of September each year. The administrative arrangements for the 2011 Scheme are different from those that applied in previous years. For this year, the majority of Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance entitlements will be fully automated with no application form required from customers. This change to the administrative arrangements saw some 127,000 households receive their payment automatically in June of this year.
Customers who did not receive an automated payment are required to complete application forms which are being processed from one centralised unit within the Department of Social Protection. Manual applications have been accepted since the start of July and up to last Friday (9th September) 81,000 applications have been received. Claims continue to arrive at over 700 per day, however, this is down from a high of 3,000 per day received in the first two weeks of July, and 2,000 per day in the second two weeks of July, and 1,500 at the end of July/ beginning of August.
Of the 81,000 claims received almost 45,000 have been processed. 33,000 have been paid, 5,000 refused, 5,500 returned because there was insufficient information and there were 1,300 duplicate claims The Department is working to clear the claims as quickly as possible. 38 staff were originally provided to process these claims, an additional 14 staff were assigned in mid-August bringing the staff complement to 52. This number has now been increased to 60 staff with overtime also being worked.
The timescale for determining applications for BSCFA claims is dependant, among other things, on the availability of the required information, such as details of the applicant's income, bank statements, etc. In addition, some aspects of the applications are inevitably time consuming and delays can occur where further investigations or third party evidence is required. Delays can also arise if the applicant is slow to respond to requests for additional information.
It is proposed that when the 2011 scheme has been concluded a full review of the experience will be undertaken. Lessons learned will be documented for the future operation of the scheme.