THOUSANDS of families have contacted the Saint Vincent de Paul (SVP) in recent weeks to help them meet the cost of sending their children back to school.
The country’s largest charity said there had been a surge in calls because of the crippling cost of uniforms, books and other school-related expenses. It said it is running out of funds because it has spent at least €3 million so far this year helping families with education-related costs.
The Department of Social and Family Affairs said almost 200,000 children from 88,000 families will have applied for the Back-to-School Clothing and Footwear Allowance by the end of September — a rise of more than 10,000 on 2007.
However, children’s charity Barnardos estimates a further 10,000 children are falling through the gaps because children from households earning more than €375 a week are not eligible for the allowance.
The department has earmarked €46m of funding — an increase of €6m from last year to meet growing demand.
But the SVP said the payments are not enough and has written to Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin informing her that thousands of families are still unable to make ends meet this month.
The SVP said its Dublin office alone has experienced a 40% increase in the number of families seeking assistance this year. “Every year there is a surge in calls at this time when children are going back to school. But this year there is a big increase in pressure,” said SVP spokesman Stuart Kenny.
The SVP received almost 12,000 calls this year compared with 8,000 last year. Almost 2,500 were first-time callers.
“More than a fifth of calls are from people who never called us before and around 70% are people who have called us in previous years but who managed to get along during the Celtic Tiger years and are back to us again,” said Mr Kenny.
Barnardos is calling for a change in the income threshold for eligibility because it excludes many children from “working poor” families.
Chief executive Fergus Finlay said: “The gap between what the Government is providing and the reality on the ground could be as many as 10,000 children.”
The grant provides parents with €200 for each eligible child aged between 2 and 11 years and €305 for school children over the age of 12.
Barnardos is calling for an increase of the allowance by €50 a child because it believes the current rate does not reflect the true cost of going back to school.
It said the basic cost of going back to school for a primary pupil is €375 and €405 for a secondary pupil.