Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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687. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reason the income from a retained firefighter (details supplied) is being used to calculate income for the back to school clothing and footwear allowance. [42169/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The back to school clothing and footwear allowance (BSCFA) scheme is a non-statutory scheme which 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.

In order to qualify for BSCFA, an applicant must satisfy a number of qualifying conditions, one of which requires the applicant’s household income to be within the income limits for that year’s scheme.

Income received in the form of Working Family Payment (WFP), formerly Family Income Supplement (FIS) or Back to Work Family Dividend (BTWFD) is not assessable. However, all income received from employment, including income earned as a retained firefighter, is assessable under the normal rules of this scheme.

The application for BSCFA by the person concerned has not been awarded in this case due to household income being in excess of the appropriate income limit.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.