Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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1198. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons that did not receive an automatic payment of the back to school clothing and footwear allowance and that had to reapply in each of the years 2009 to 2017 and to date in 2018. [35937/18]

Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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1199. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reason those entitled to automatic payment of the back to school clothing and footwear allowance that may have to reapply are not informed of this prior to the release of the payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35938/18]

Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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1200. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of back to school clothing and footwear allowance payments made on the assigned date of issue; and the number of persons that received it after this date. [35939/18]

Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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1228. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons in receipt of the back to school clothing and footwear allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35959/18]

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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1254. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reason for the delay in processing the back to school clothing and footwear allowance; the wait time for same; the number of applications to be processed; the date on which all applications will be processed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36259/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1198 to 1200, inclusive, and 1228 and 1254 together.

The back to school clothing and footwear allowance (BSCFA) scheme provides a once-off payment to eligible families to assist with the costs of clothing and footwear when children start or return to school each autumn. The Government has provided €49.5 million for the scheme in 2018.

The payment rates are €125 for eligible children aged 4 to 11 years and €250 for children aged over 12 years and attending secondary school.

Each year since 2010 in excess of 100,000 customers can be identified from the Department's computer system as having an automatic entitlement to the allowance so they are notified of their entitlement and there is no requirement for them to make an application. In addition, approximately 55,000 customers may have an entitlement but need to apply to have this entitlement assessed.

Similar to arrangements in previous years, the majority of this year’s BSCFA payments for 104,461 families in respect of approximately 190,308 children were fully automated and parents were not required to make an application to the Department. The total amount paid to families with an automatic entitlement was €33.45m and these payments were made during the week commencing 9^thJuly 2018.

In order to qualify for an automated payment the parent of the child must have been in receipt of a qualifying payment that included an increase in respect of a qualified child at the commencement of the scheme and the Department were satisfied that the household satisfied the means test for the scheme. The scheme commenced from the 1^stJune 2018 with the entitlement created based on the preceding week's entitlement.

The Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance is a means-tested allowance. Qualifying for the allowance in a previous year does not in any way guarantee the customer will receive it in the current year and many customers, especially those who have had a change in their means or circumstance, will need to make an application for the payment for this year in order to have their entitlement validated. Customers with children aged 18 years or over will also need to apply and provide confirmation that they are in full-time second-level education. Therefore it is not possible prior to the release of the automatic payments to inform customers that they have no automatic entitlement to the payment.

Customers who may have received BSCFA in previous years and did not receive written confirmation of entitlement for this year by end June will need to make an application. Applications for Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance are open until 30 September and application forms are available to download fromwww.welfare.ie/forms or at local Intreo Centres. To request a form by post, the customer should text BSCFA1 followed by their name and address to 51909.

To date (5 September 2018) 130,339 families have been awarded the allowance, 5,642 have been refused and 10,470 are awaiting a decision. Up to 400 applications are being received on a daily basis. Expenditure to date on the scheme is €42.8m.

The BSCFA Area continues to experience delays in processing the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance (BSCFA). The delays have arisen as a result of a combination of technical issues, and a very high volume of new applications received since the beginning of July. However, I can assure you that all outstanding claims are being dealt with expeditiously.

Customers who are experiencing particular difficulties with back to school costs and have yet to receive the allowance can contact their local Community Welfare Service (CWS) to seek financial assistance by way of a basic Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) which is fully recoupable from the BSCFA due.

The number of customers who received an automatic payment and those who were paid on foot of submitting an application in the years 2011 to date are set out in the attached tabular statement. All payments prior to 2011 were on foot of an application being submitted.

*provisional