Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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195. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if kinship carers are eligible for the back to school allowance. [31180/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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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 each year.

To qualify for the allowance a person must meet a number of conditions, namely:

• The child must meet the age criteria,
• The applicant must be in receipt of a qualifying payment and getting an increase in that payment for the qualified child (except in certain circumstances) in the period June to 30 September,
• The assessable income for the household must be within prescribed limits,
• The applicant and the child (or children) in respect of whom the allowance is claimed must be resident in the State.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.