Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 November 2018
1100. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reason a change was made to the BSCFA process by which persons who usually receive the payment automatically had to send in a new application in 2018; the further reason persons were not informed individually of this change; if applications made after the closing date will be considered; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45331/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe back to school clothing and footwear allowance (BSCFA) scheme provides a once-off payment to eligible families to assist with the costs of clothing and footwear when children start or return to school each autumn. The Government has provided €49.5 million for the scheme in 2018.
The payment rates for this year are €125 for eligible children aged 4 to 11 years and €250 for children aged over 12 years and attending secondary school.
Since 2010, in excess of 100,000 customers can be identified every year from the Department's information systems as having an automatic entitlement to the allowance. These customers are notified of their entitlement and there is no requirement for them to make an application. In addition, approximately 45,000 customers may have an entitlement but need to apply to have this entitlement assessed.
Similar to arrangements in previous years, the majority of this year’s BSCFA payments for 104,461 families in respect of approximately 190,308 children were fully automated and parents were not required to make an application to the Department. The total amount paid to families with an automatic entitlement was €33.45m and these payments were made during the week commencing 9th July 2018.
In order to qualify for an automated payment the parent of the child must have been in receipt of a qualifying payment that included an increase in respect of a qualified child at the commencement of the scheme and the Department were satisfied that the household satisfied the means test for the scheme. The scheme for the school year 2018/2019 commenced from the 1st June 2018 with the entitlement created based on the preceding week's entitlement.
The back to school clothing and footwear allowance is a means-tested allowance. Qualifying for the allowance in a previous year does not in any way guarantee the customer will receive it in a current year and many customers, especially those who had a change in their means or circumstance, needed to make an application for the payment for this year in order to have their entitlement validated. Customers with children aged 18 years or over also needed to apply and provide confirmation that the children were in full-time second-level education. Therefore it is not possible to inform customers individually in advance that they may or may not have an entitlement.
Customers who may have received BSCFA in previous years and did not receive written confirmation of entitlement for this year by end-June needed to make an application. This has been the case since 2010 and there was no change in the procedure this year. The Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance scheme was open for new applications until 30 September 2018. The scheme is now closed and no new applications can be considered.
To date (1 November 2018) 143,829 families have been awarded the allowance in respect of 266,078 children, 11,013 applications have been refused and 385 are awaiting a decision. Those awaiting a decision are cases where the customer has applied for a social welfare payment and their application for a BSCFA cannot be processed until a decision is made on their main application. Expenditure to date on the scheme is €47.3m.
I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
