Máire Hoctor (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)

The back to school clothing and footwear allowance, known as the BSCFA scheme, provides payment to eligible families to assist with the extra costs when their children start school each autumn. The scheme operates from the beginning of June to the end of September each year and is administered on behalf of the Department by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. The allowance is not intended to meet the full cost of school clothing and footwear but only to provide assistance towards these costs.

A person may qualify for payment of an allowance if he or she is in receipt of a social welfare or Health Service Executive payment, participating in an approved employment scheme or attending a recognised education and training course and have a household income at below standard levels. In line with other secondary benefits, a means test is applied to ensure limited resources are directed to those in greatest need. Apart from a number of exceptions, all household income, including welfare payments such as carer's allowance, is assessable as means under the BSCFA scheme in accordance with the normal assessment for supplementary welfare allowance. The exceptions to these rules are that any income received in the form of family income supplement, higher education grants or the first €120 of earnings from employment of a rehabilitative nature is disregarded for the purposes of the back to school clothing and footwear allowance scheme.

Final figures for the numbers of applications received and awarded for 2007 are not yet available from the HSE. Current indications are that 85,000 plus families with approximately 174,000 plus children will benefit from the scheme this year at a cost of €40 million. This is an increase on the figures for 2006, when some 80,000 families with 161,000 children benefited at a cost of €23.5 million. This increase can be mainly attributed to the significant level of publicity given to the scheme this year in the media and through the other information services operated by the Department. The Department has increased its publicity in this area to ensure that as many families as possible are aware of the scheme.

The back to school clothing and footwear allowance is a demand led scheme and statistics are no available on families who might satisfy the qualifying conditions for the allowance but who have not applied. The rates were increased in last year's budget to €180 for children aged two to 11 years and to €285 for those aged 12 to 22 years, an increase of €60 and €95, respectively, on 2006 rates. In this year's budget the Minister has increased the rate by €20 to €200 for children two to 11 years and to €305 for those aged 12 to 22 years.

We consider the back to school clothing and footwear allowance an important support for parents at a time of particular financial strain. We are satisfied that improvement to the scheme in recent years, namely an increase in income limits and an increase in the rates of payment respectively, provide a major boast to meeting the financial costs associated with return to school for those who most need assistance. Any changes to the structure of the scheme, rates of payment, income limits or amendments to the qualifying criteria would have cost implications and would have to be considered in a budgetary context and in the light of resources available to the Department for improvements in social welfare payments generally.