Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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297. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number and value of awards made under the exceptional needs payment scheme to families since the scheme replaced the previous bereavement grant scheme; the way the total expenditure compares with the combined exceptional needs and bereavement schemes in the previous relevant similar period; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31508/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Under the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme, my 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 Government has provided €30.3 million for the ENP scheme in 2016.

ENP payments are made at the discretion of the Department's officers administering the scheme taking into account the requirements of the legislation and all the relevant circumstances of the individual or family in order to ensure that the payments target those most in need of assistance. An application can be made under the ENP scheme for assistance with funeral and burial expenses where there is an inability to pay these costs, in part or in full, by the family of the deceased person without causing hardship.

The bereavement grant was discontinued for deaths occurring after 1^stJanuary 2014. Expenditure on that scheme in 2013 was almost €20.3 million. In the same year, almost 133,000 payments issued under the ENP scheme at a cost of some €35.7 million, of which 3,200 payments at a cost of €4.4 million was recorded as assistance towards funerals.

Since the closure of the bereavement grant, over 107,000 payments issued under the ENP scheme at a cost of €30.1 million in 2014, and in 2015 over 96,200 payments issued at a cost of €31 million. The numbers of payments towards funeral related costs in 2014 and 2015 was 3,000 and 2,700, at a cost of €4.6 million and €4.7 million respectively.

As I advised the Deputy in my reply on 6 October to his previous questions on this matter, assistance with funeral costs is a long-standing feature of the ENP scheme, rather than a replacement for the discontinued PRSI-based bereavement grant, and is part of a range of supports available from my Department for people following bereavement.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.