Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Under the supplementary welfare allowance, SWA, scheme, the Department may make a single exceptional needs payment, ENP, to help meet essential, once-off and unforeseen expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. The Department provides money for clothing for adults and children in exceptional circumstances. The Government has provided €47.6 million for the exceptional needs payment scheme in 2013. The special payments 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 in order to ensure that the payments are targeted at those most in need of assistance.

A review of the guidelines on exceptional needs payments was carried out for the Department by a working group made up of community welfare service staff. One of the recommendations from the review was to address the different approaches taken, in different areas, in relation to the payment of exceptional needs payment in respect of religious ceremonies, mainly communions and confirmations, and to ensure that the SWA scheme is responding to financial need rather than to meet expected and foreseeable costs associated with such occasions. In 2011, only 25 payments for religious ceremonies issued in the north west of the country with more than 5,600 payments having issued in the eastern region, including Dublin. Average payments also differed for this period and ranged from between €189 in the north east to over €300 in the east of the country.

The working group recommended that payment of the allowance specifically in respect of religious ceremonies should cease. This recommendation has been implemented by the Department and it is expected that this measure will achieve annual savings of €1.5 million.

This recommendation does not affect the discretion available to officers administering the scheme in issuing an exceptional needs payment to assist an individual or household in a particular hardship situation which may arise. In 2013 to date, the Department has assisted some 600 families with costs towards children's clothing under the exceptional needs payment scheme at a cost of approximately €60,000.

The number of payments and amounts paid in respect of religious ceremonies in the years 2010 to 2012 is provided in the following table.

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