Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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394. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection for a breakdown in tabular form of additional needs payments made in County Kerry for the years 2018 to 2022. [6696/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, my Department may make additional needs payments to assist with ongoing or recurring costs that cannot be met from the customer’s own resources, and which are deemed to be necessary.

The schemes are demand led and payments 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 in order to ensure that the payments target those most in need of assistance.

The reporting of the schemes was revised in 2022 to extract more complete information. Statistics are available on the number of Exceptional and Urgent Needs Payments made in 2018-2021, but not on the number of supplements awarded.

Table 1 shows the number of Exceptional and Urgent Needs Payments made in 2018-2021 and the number of Additional Needs Payments made in 2022, by category in Co Kerry.

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 contact centre in place - 0818-607080 - which will direct callers to the appropriate office.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Table 1 - The number of Exceptional and Urgent Needs Payments made in 2018-2021 and the number of Additional Needs Payments made in 2022 by category in Co Kerry.