Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, my Department may make Additional Needs Payments to help meet essential expenses that a person cannot pay from their weekly income or other personal and household resources. This is an overarching term used to refer to exceptional and urgent needs payments, and certain supplements.

Additional Needs Payments are demand led and 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.

It is not feasible to show the individual payment amount for each Additional Needs Payment.

As agreed with my officials and the Deputy's office, Tables 1 and 2 show the breakdown by category of the number and total expenditure paid from January 2023 to the end of March 2024 for Additional Needs Payments. Statistics are published on a quarterly basis. These figures are provisional and subject to revision.

Any person who considers that 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. In addition, applications can be made online via www.mywelfare.ie.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Tabular Statement

Table 1 - The number, by category, of Additional Needs Payments paid from January 2023 to the end of March 2024

Table 2 - The total expenditure, by category, of Additional Needs Payments paid from January 2023 to the end of March 2024

Note: These figures are taken from the Department's ANP database and represent a snapshot of payments as they are approved by an officer rather than when they are paid. The figures do not capture payments that are cancelled, payments that go out of date or overpayments recouped and therefore will not reconcile with the end of year outturn figures. These expenditure figures exclude ongoing supplements awarded prior to 2023.