Under the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme, the Department may make a single exceptional needs payment (ENP) to help meet essential, once-off, exceptional expenditure, which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. These ENP payments are a vital component of the SWA scheme and link the income support function of the scheme with the wider welfare role of the Department's community welfare service.
There is no automatic entitlement to a payment, ENP's are payable at the discretion of the officers administering the scheme taking into account the requirements of the legislation and all the relevant circumstances of the case.
A review of the guidelines on ENPs has recently been carried out by the Department by a working group made up of former community welfare service staff. One of the recommendations from the Group was to address the different approaches taken, in different areas, in relation to the payment of exceptional needs payments in respect of religious ceremonies and to ensure that the SWA scheme is responding to a specific financial need and not to the occasion.
At present, where the Department is satisfied that an exceptional need exists, it is now recommended that a maximum payment of €110 can be made in respect of the religious ceremony. This will be the first step towards limiting these payments to cases of significant hardship only, in 2013.