CASH-strapped Inishowen
families have been hit with six week delays in the
Back to School Allowance payments, local TDs have
said.
Fianna Fáil children's spokesman, Deputy Charlie
McConalogue said the delay would cause serious
hardship to young families.
"Donegal families are experiencing waiting times of
up to six weeks, meaning many will not receive this
vital financial support from the State until well
after the school year has begun. In the meantime,
they are struggling to pay for new school books,
uniforms, stationery and other essential school
items," said Deputy McConalogue.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin Deputy Pádraig MacLochlainn
said: “The announcement from the Social Protection
Minister Joan Burton that there could be a six-week
delay in processing Back-to-School Allowance forms
is simply unacceptable.
“It is not good enough for the Department of Social
Welfare to use the excuse of increased applications
for the allowance to justify the delay in processing
this payment. "The Department only started dealing
with the 66,000 applications received in the second
week of July, and they are only able to process
1,000 forms daily, so clearly the present system was
going to be overwhelmed," said Deputy MacLochlainn. |
