Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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113. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will review the regulations around the back-to-school allowance to ensure that the allowance is available to a parent even when their dependent is in receipt of their own disability payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [59284/22]

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.

The allowance is payable for eligible children between the ages of 4 and 17 in respect of whom a qualified child allowance 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.

To qualify for the allowance a person must meet a number of conditions, including being in receipt of an increase in their weekly social protection payment for the qualified child.

Parents whose children are in receipt of social protection payments in their own right, will not receive an increase in their weekly social protection payment for those children and so do not qualify for the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance payment.

There are no current plans to amend the eligibility criteria for the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance scheme. Any changes to the scheme would have to be considered in a budgetary context and within the scope of the overall resources available for welfare improvements.

Applications which fall outside the normal rules of the scheme may be considered for an Additional Needs Payment under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme by the Community Welfare Service.

Any person who considers they may have an entitlement to an Additional Needs Payment is encouraged to contact their local Community Welfare Service. There is a National Community Welfare Service Contact Centre in place – 0818-607080 – which will direct callers to the appropriate office.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.