Back to school allowance

Date: 22/06/2010
Posted by: Darragh

NORTH DUBLIN FAMILIES URGED TO APPLY EARLY FOR BACK TO SCHOOL ALLOWANCE

I am urging North Dublin families to apply early for the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance.

A payment of €200 or €305 is available to parents towards the cost of school clothing and footwear, depending on the age of their children. A total of €82 million is being provided for the programme and more than 300,000 children in over 160,000 families around the country are expected to benefit from it.

I know the school year is only finishing for many and a lot of parents will be looking forward to a break this summer but I'm urging parents to apply for this funding before breaking for summer holidays.

Applications are being accepted now and it's really easy to apply. You can text "FORM BTSCFA" to the number 51909, followed by your name and address for an application form. The Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance is a huge help to a lot of families who find their budgets are under more strain than normal in September with new books, new uniforms and other bits and pieces every child needs for school.

It doesn't take too long to do but the sooner the application is submitted the sooner the funding can come through. It can take a few weeks to process the applications and funding, particularly if a lot of people leave it late to apply. So rather than be waiting for the money to come in I would encourage families to apply now.

€82 million in funding has been set aside for the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance this year so I hope everyone entitled to it makes use of it and gets their application in on time.

People may qualify for payment of the allowance if they are in receipt of a Social Welfare payment (including Family Income Supplement), or a Health Service Executive payment, are participating in an approved employment scheme or attending a recognised education and training course and have household income at or below certain set levels. The weekly income limit for the allowance for parents with one child is now €563.60 for couples and €410.10 for those parenting alone.

Applications may be made between the beginning of June and the end of September every year.

Application forms are also available at http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Forms/Documents/bscfa.pdf or at http://communitywelfareservice.ie/cws_public/application-forms