Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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175. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of customers seeking assistance from community welfare officers in each Intreo office in the country in each of the years 2020, 2021 and to date in 2022, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [62631/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Community Welfare Service (CWS) delivers the Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) scheme which is the safety net within the overall social welfare system. This scheme helps eligible people in the State whose means are insufficient to meet their needs and those of their dependents. Supports provided under the SWA scheme can consist of a basic weekly payment, a weekly or monthly supplement in respect of certain expenses, as well as single Additional Needs Payments (ANPs).

The basic SWA provides immediate assistance for those in need who are awaiting the outcome of a claim or an appeal for a primary social welfare payment or do not qualify for payment under other State schemes.

Rent Supplement provides short-term income support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. The scheme ensures that for those who were renting, but whose circumstances have changed due to temporary loss of employment, can continue to meet their rental commitments.

Under the SWA scheme, the Department can make ANPs to help meet expenses that a person cannot pay from their weekly income. This is an overarching term used to refer to exceptional and urgent needs payments, and certain supplements to assist with ongoing or recurring costs that cannot be met from the client’s own resources and are deemed to be necessary.

An Exceptional Needs Payment (ENP) is a single payment to help meet essential, once-off expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. An urgent needs payment (UNP) may be made to persons who may not normally qualify for SWA but who have an urgent need which they cannot meet from their own resources or where an alternative is not available at that time.

Decisions on SWA applications 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.

While information on SWA schemes is not collated by Intreo Centre, it can be provided by county.

The table below provides the breakdown of basic SWA and ANP registered claims by county in the period January to September 2022:

The table below provides the breakdown of awarded Rent Supplement (RS) claims by county as at the end of December 2020, 2021 and September 2022:

I trust this clarifies the matter.