Rules

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

• Getting a social welfare payment (including Family Income Supplement) or a Health Service Executive payment, or
• Taking part in an approved employment scheme, or
• Taking part in a recognised education or training course, or
• Involved in an Area Partnership Scheme, or
• Attending a FÁS, Fáilte Ireland or LES training scheme

Your child must be aged between 2-22 on or before 30 September. If they are aged between 18-22 they must be in full-time education in a recognised school or college.

In general you must be getting an Increase for a Qualified Child 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 a qualified child increase 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.

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.

Your total household income includes your main social welfare or Health Service Executive payment, the income of any dependent children on the Youthreach Programme 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 Rent Supplement or Mortgage Interest Supplement, Family Income Supplement, Blind Welfare Allowance, Rehabilitation Training Allowance, rehabilitative employment (up to €120 per week), work as a home help, Domiciliary Care Allowance, Mobility Allowance and the Student Grant Scheme is not counted.

Income limits for couples 2011

*The income limit is increased by €29.80 for each additional child.

Income limits for lone parents 2011

*The income limit is increased by €29.80 for each additional child.

Back to Education Allowance or VTOS

If you are on a Back to Education Allowance or VTOS allowance, you can apply for the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance. You will be assessed using the standard rules and your total household income must be less than the income limits.

Back to work schemes

There are some special conditions for people who are on Back to Work Allowance (Employees), Back to Work Enterprise Allowance, Community Employment, Job Initiative, Revenue Job Assist, Rural Social Scheme, Tús and the Community Services Programme/Social Economy Programme (Grant Aided Employees).

If you were on a social welfare before going onto one of these schemes, you will first be assessed using the standard means test for the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance.

If you fail to qualify using the standard means test, you will be re-assessed to find out if you can retain the Allowance as a secondary benefit under the different back to work schemes. In the re-assessment you can keep your entitlement to the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance (or apply for it if you did not have an eligible child before now), as long as your gross household income is less than €317.43.

In the re-assessment of means, the value of the Back to Work Allowance, Back to Enterprise Allowance and Family Income Supplement is not taken into account in the calculation of your gross household income.