The Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance (BSCFA) scheme provides a one-off payment to eligible families to assist with the extra costs when their children start school each autumn. The allowance is not intended to meet the full cost of school clothing and footwear but only to provide assistance towards these costs.
The BSCFA scheme was introduced in 1990. This scheme superseded the arrangements which had been in place since 1977 whereby child clothing and footwear payments were made under the exceptional needs provisions of the Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) scheme. The SWA clothing and footwear scheme had in turn replaced a previous Public Assistance Footwear scheme that had been introduced in 1944.
These previous schemes had been targeted at both school and pre-school children from the age of two years up. When the BSCFA scheme was introduced, the provision to pay the allowance to children from the age of two years up was retained.
At the end of this year's BSCFA scheme a review will be undertaken of all aspects of the operation of the scheme, including eligibility criteria. The following tabular statement shows the breakdown of children aged two and three years of age that benefited from the scheme between 2006 and 2010 and the associated cost.
Tabular Statement BSCFA Recipients 2 and 3 Year olds 2006 to 2010
BSCFA Recipient numbers aged 2 and 3 years
|
Year
|
Numbers
|
Cost
|
2010
|
39,800
|
€7,960,000
|
2009
|
34,071
|
€6,814,200
|
2008
|
24,633
|
€4,926,600
|
2007
|
22,017
|
€4,403,400
|
2006
|
21,215
|
€4,243,000
|