By Ann Marie Foley - 29 August, 2018
The Society of Saint Vincent De Paul (SVP) expects to receive more than 6,000 calls for help to pay back to school costs by the end of August.
That is 20 per cent more than other years or some 1,200 more parents under pressure to pay for the start of year costs of getting their children and teens to school.
“August is the busiest month for school costs in SVP and calls continue to come in this week from worried parents,” stated Marcella Stakem, SVP Social Policy Officer.
“We know this time of year is stressful for most families as they try to meet the costs of uniforms, books and ‘voluntary’ contributions, and that these costs bear most heavily on families with limited incomes.”
There has been a delay in processing the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance (BSCFA) by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, according to the SVP, and this has placed additional pressure on families with limited incomes.
In a statement issued yesterday (28 August 2018), the Department said that applications received up to and including Friday 24 August have been scanned and acknowledged by text. Applications received on 19 and 20 July are being processed and applicants will receive confirmation in writing, with “payments issuing to eligible customers on a daily basis”.
The statement also adds that there are “some delays” in processing the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance (BSCFA) and “the Department continues to ask customers who have made an application to bear with us, while we work to clear the backlog as quickly as possible.”
The BSCFA phone line will be closed for an unspecified period to “maximise” the number of applications that can be processed, and additional staff resources have also been assigned to the section. The Department apologised to all those waiting.
Another difficulty for parents is that an increasing number of schools are making Transition Year (TY) mandatory. Costs for the year can come to anything between €300 and €900 per pupil.
“Transition year has lots of social and educational benefits for students, but as it becomes mandatory in more and more schools, the Department of Education have to seriously examine how the costs impacts on low income families and put in place measures to promote participation,” said Marcella Stakem.
SVP is advocating that social welfare payments be increased to reflect the higher costs faced by families with children over the age of 12. It says that Budget 2019 can alleviate pressure on parents by making child benefit payable until children and teens reach the end of their schooling. SVP wants the government to reverse the cuts to the Back to School Allowance.
Other cuts to funding of schools, made during the recession, still have not been reversed. For example, capitation grants were cut in 2010, and as the cost of running schools has not decreased, school authorities have been looking to parents for so called ‘voluntary contributions’ to pay for the basic costs of running schools.
Purchasing new books is expensive when compared with renting books, and even schools which attempt to introduce School Books Scheme receive inadequate funding from the government. The SVP estimates that it would cost approximately €40m per year to have an entirely free schoolbook scheme all over the country.
“This is very achievable, and a good start would be providing an additional €20m in Budget 2019,” said Marcella Stakem.
Tomorrow (Thursday 30 August) the SVP will present to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills to outline proposals for a funding model that is reflective of the cost of providing a free, universal and quality education.
Almost a month ago (see CI News 2 August 2018), the annual Barnardos school costs survey showed that almost one third of parents – 11 per cent of primary school parents and 21 per cent of secondary school parents – are forced to borrow money to cover school costs. Other parents either delay payment of other bills or take money out of savings.
The children’s charity called on the government to uphold a child’s constitutional right to free education by committing in the budget to invest an extra €103.2 million annually in primary education and €126.9 million annually in secondary education.
