Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance

Rules

You may qualify for the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance if you are:

• Getting a social welfare payment (including Working Family Payment and Back to Work Family Dividend) or a Health Service Executive payment, or
• Taking part in an approved employment scheme (back to work scheme) or
• Taking part in a recognised education or training course, or
• Getting a Daily Expenses Allowance (formerly called Direct Provision Allowance) for a child in education (or for yourself if you are 18-22 and returning to full-time second-level education), or
• Involved in an Area Partnership Scheme, or
• Attending a FET (formerly Fás) or Fáilte Ireland training course

Your child must be aged between 4-17 on or before 30 September 2018. If they are aged between 18-22 they must be returning to full-time second-level education in a recognised school or college in the autumn of 2018.

In general, you must be getting an Increase for a Qualified Child (IQC) with your payment. There are some exceptions to this. For example, you may be getting a qualifying payment but you are not getting an increase for your child (because the rules of the scheme do not provide for a child payment) – Maternity Benefit or Adoptive Benefit are examples. In such cases you can still claim BSCFA if you satisfy the other criteria. In other cases an IQC is not paid because the income of your spouse or partner is over the specified limits but if your overall household income is within the limits specified below you may qualify. You cannot claim BSCFA for a child who is not resident in the State. Foster children are not eligible for the BSCFA because the financial support parents get from Tusla - the Child and Family Agency (Foster Care Allowance) includes help with the cost of clothing and footwear for the child.

Note that if you have applied for a social welfare payment, or have appealed a decision not to award you a social welfare payment and are waiting for a decision on your application, you should apply for the BSCFA before the scheme closes. Your entitlement will be established when you get a decision on your application or appeal.

Income limits

To qualify for the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance, your total household income must be less than the amounts set out in the table below. All your dependent children are taken into account for the income limits (including children who do not qualify for BSCFA because they are aged under 4).

Your total household income includes your main social welfare or Health Service Executive payment and any other income you may have including wages (before tax, but excluding PRSI and a standard travel allowance of up to €20 per week), maintenance, savings and investments.

Savings and investments (including property, but not your home) are assessed as follows:

Any income you get from Child Benefit, Rent Supplement or other income supplement (formerly Mortgage Interest Supplement), Working Family Payment, guardian's payments, Blind Welfare Allowance, Rehabilitation Training Allowance, rehabilitative employment (up to €120 per week), Domiciliary Care Allowance and Mobility Allowance is not counted.

*The income limit is increased by €31.80 for each additional dependent child.

*The income limit is increased by €31.80 for each additional dependent child.