All you need to know about Ireland’s final Cost of Living cash boost

Sophie Collins

Many families across Ireland will be receiving a final social welfare boost as part of the Spring cost of living package.

The date of the next one-off payment has been confirmed, and families should begin to see it in their accounts in a matter of weeks.

The €410m social welfare package was announced by the Government back in February and consisted of a €200 one off payment to all social welfare recipients in April and a €100 top-up per child in the June Child Benefit.

The final cash boost is an increase of €100 per child in the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance.

This increase will see parents receive the higher rate of €260 per eligible child aged between 4 and 11 and €385 for eligible children aged 12 to 22.

The scheme remains open right now, but will close for applications on September 30th, 2023.

However, many families automatically qualify for the boost and the Department of Social Protection has said they can expect the payment during the week starting July 10th.

The Department of Social Protection said in a statement: “The majority of payments will be paid automatically with no application form required.

“Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance will be paid automatically to more than 120,000 families in respect of approximately 210,000 children during the week beginning 10 July.

“The Department of Social Protection is currently processing these payments and customers will receive confirmation informing them of their automatic entitlement, on their MyWelfare account or by post.

“This will result in approximately €70 million being paid to these families during the week beginning 10 July.

“Families who do not receive notification from the department of an automated payment should make an application online on MyWelfare.ie even if they received a payment last year.”

Credit: iStock

Am I eligible

You may get the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance (BSCFA), if you have a child that qualifies and:

You are getting a qualifying social welfare payment or participating in an approved employment, education or training support scheme. You can find a list of qualifying payments and schemes.
Your household is within the BSCFA income limit. See ‘Income limits’ below.
You and each child you are claiming the BSCFA for is resident in Ireland.

If you are getting a social welfare payment, you must be getting an Increase for a Qualified Child (IQC) with your payment. There are some exceptions to this, for example:

You are getting a qualifying social welfare payment, but you are not getting an increase for your child because the rules of the payment do not provide for a child payment. Maternity Benefit and Adoptive Benefit are examples of this. You can still claim BSCFA if you meet the other BSCFA rules.
You are getting a qualifying social welfare payment, but you are not getting an increase for your child because your spouse or partner’s income is over the specified limit for your payment. You can still claim BSCFA if your overall household income is within the BSCFA income limits. See ‘Income limits’ below.

What children qualify?

To get the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance, your child must be:

Aged between 4-17 on 30 September – the year you are applying for BSCFA
Aged between 18-22 and returning to full-time second-level education in a recognised school or college in the autumn of the year you are applying for BSCFA

You cannot claim BSCFA for a child who is not resident in the State.

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