Dublin South West TD, Seán Crowe, has said that the last minute increase to the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance, by outgoing Minister Leo Varadkar, was delivered in a half-hearted and in a reluctant manner.

The Sinn Féin TD said the 25% increase while welcome will still leave many families with a financial mountain climb.

Deputy Seán Crowe said:

“The back to school period is a financial nightmare for many families and particularly those currently relying on Social Welfare payments.

“School costs like many other essentials cannot be ignored or wished away, and increasingly more and more families are having to dig deep to meet rising costs.

“Several surveys conducted by various organisations have put actual costs at between €800 and in some cases, over €1,000.

“Typically, any increase in a payment such as the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance is welcome, but the gap between the payment and the actual cost of sending a child to school is still growing.

“Back to school costs are increasing year on year and a payment of €125 and €250 while extremely welcome, comes nowhere near to meeting the actual costs of sending a child to school and still leaves families with a huge financial mountain to climb at this time of the year.

“Sadly this payment increase appears to have been delivered in a half-hearted and reluctant manner.

“Leo Varadkar, the outgoing Minister for Social Protection and now Taoiseach, on numerous previous occasions resisted calls to increase this payment and even went as far as to suggest that the payment at its previous level was sufficient as costs were supposedly falling. Clearly common sense and saner heads have prevailed and the increase payment was signed off on.

“Yesterday, St. Vincent de Paul launched their Pre Budget Submission and this calls for the restoration of this payment to its former 2011 levels of €305 for children over 12 and €200 for children under 12. This is clearly the direction we need to go in and with the right political will can be achieved in Budget 2018.”

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