Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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653. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of requests for exceptional needs payments in each of the years 2012 to 2016 and to date in 2017; the number of exceptional needs payments granted; the number refused, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50269/17]

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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654. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of successful appeals relating to exceptional needs payments in each of the years 2012 to 2016 and to date in 2017, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50270/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 653 and 654 together.

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 Government has provided €31.5 million for exceptional and urgent needs payments in 2017.

There is no automatic entitlement to a payment. The ENP 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 of assistance.

Statistics are maintained relating to payments under the ENP scheme, however they are not maintained on the number of applications, the outcome of those applications, or the number of requests for reviews of ENP decisions or the outcomes of those reviews. Details of the number of payments under the ENP and UNP schemes for 2012 to 2017 are set out in the following tabular statement.

Any persons who consider that they have an entitlement to an ENP should contact my Department.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputies.

Number of Exceptional Needs Payments made by year: