Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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164. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the total cost of allowing all fostering caring families to receive the back to school allowance without a means test; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39879/25]

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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165. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the total number of fostering caring families who will benefit from his recent announcement that foster caring families will be eligible for the back to school allowance through a means test; the total cost of this measure; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39880/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 164 and 165 together.

This Government acknowledges the important role that carers, including foster carers, play and remains fully committed to supporting them. That is why I was really pleased to announce that Back-to-School Clothing and Footwear Allowance eligibility is being extended to include children for whom Foster Care Allowance is being paid.

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.

The allowance is payable in respect of eligible children between the ages of 4 and 17 in respect of whom a Child Support Payment (previously known as Increase for a Qualified Child) is being paid and eligible children between the ages of 18 and 22 who are returning to full-time second level education and in respect of whom a Child Support payment is being paid.

In order to qualify for Back-to-School Clothing and Footwear Allowance, an applicant must satisfy a number of qualifying conditions, one of which requires the applicant’s household income to be within the relevant income limits. The income limits for the scheme are increased annually as part of the budget process.

The Weekly Household Income Limits for 2025 are:

The household income includes weekly social protection payments, gross income from employment, minus employees PRSI and a €20 travel allowance and any other income the household may have.

Any income from Foster Care Allowance, Working Family Payment, Child Benefit, Rent Supplement, Back to Work Family Dividend, Guardian’s Payments, Domiciliary Care Allowance, Blind Welfare Allowance, Higher Level Education grants is not assessable. Rehabilitative employment (up to €165 per week) is also not assessable.

It is expected some 2,300 children in foster care will now be eligible for the Back-to-School Clothing and Footwear Allowance. This equates to half the children for whom Foster Care Allowance is being paid aged 4-18 years. It is not possible to indicate the number of foster care families that will qualify as in many cases there is more than 1 child for whom Foster Care Allowance being paid in the household.

The full-year cost of removing the income test for Back-to-School Clothing and Footwear Allowance in respect of children for whom foster care allowance is being paid is estimated to be €1,046,000.