Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Under the supplementary welfare allowance, SWA, scheme, my Department may make a single exceptional needs payment to help meet essential, once off expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of his or her weekly income. The Government provided €36 million for exceptional payments last year.

The exceptional needs payment scheme is demand led and payments are made 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 target those most in need.

Statistics are maintained on the payments but not on the number of applications or the outcome of those applications. Approximately 100,000 exceptional needs payments have been made over each of the last three years. Details of the exact number of payment are set out the in the table. For reporting purposes this data also includes the number of urgent needs payments that were made which accounts for a small number of those payments. An urgent needs payment is a once off payment made to persons who may not ordinarily qualify for a supplementary welfare allowance payment but who have an urgent need that they cannot meet themselves. While it is nuanced, it is slightly different in that people who would qualify for an urgent needs payment might not qualify for supplementary welfare payment. Any persons who consider that they have an entitlement to an exceptional or urgent needs payment should be encouraged by all Deputies in this House to contact their local Intreo office where our social welfare community officers will be very happy to facilitate them.

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