Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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712. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of applications for back to school allowance made in 2020 compared to 2019. [21898/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The back to school clothing and footwear allowance 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 scheme operates from June to September each year. The allowance paid for each eligible child aged from 4 to 11 years on or before 30 September 2020 is €150 while an allowance of €275 is paid for each eligible child aged over 12 on or before 30 September 2020.

The allowance is payable for eligible children between the ages of 4 and 17 in respect of whom a qualified child increase is being paid. It is also payable to those between the ages of 18 and 22 who are in full-time second level education and in respect of whom a qualified child allowance is being paid.

This year, the eligibility criteria for back to school clothing and footwear allowance has been extended to include the COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment as a qualifying payment for the allowance. Recipients of this payment will also need to satisfy all the other qualifying conditions in order to qualify.

The scheme opened to new applications on 6 July 2020. To date 38,645 applications have been received. The comparable figure for the same period in 2019 is 32,333.

I trust this clarifies the matter.