Update on Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance

So far this Summer, 207,000 payments have been made through the  BSCFA scheme. These relate to those who were automatically awarded the payment with no application form required as they had qualified for the award in 2012 and their circumstances had remained unchanged.

 

The Department of Social Protection is currently processing the 50,000 additional applications received this year and is now dealing with claims received on July 19. It is expected that the majority of customers will have their payment within five weeks of application.

 

Some 74% of customers who are expected to qualify for payment of BSCFA in 2013 have now been paid and a total of €35.8million has already been paid out in respect of this scheme for 2013.

 

Forms are available from Local Offices, via SMS (text "Form BTSCFA" followed by your name and address to 51909) and on www.welfare.ie.  A phone bank is operational to deal with queries on the scheme.  The LOCALL number is 1890662244.
You can also contact me at 042-9329052 or at mary.moran@oir.ie