Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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257. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of applications made under the additional needs payment to date in 2024; and the number made for the same time period in 2019. [45739/24]

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.

The scheme is 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.

There were 110,639 Additional Needs Payments applications registered in 2024 (to end of Q3). The reporting of the scheme was revised in 2022 to extract more complete information, including the number of claims registered. Statistics on the number of Additional Needs Payments applications received are not available for 2019, however there were 68,204 such payments awarded, up to the end of Q3 2019.

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 that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.