The number of additional needs payments (ANPs) issued by the Department of Social Protection this year to households who cannot pay for essential expenses like heating and electricity bills or furniture and bedding has risen by almost 60 per cent compared to last year.
Up to the end of last month, almost €40 million was spent on 66,000 ANPs, according to the department, exceeding last year’s total of 55,550 payments.
More than 3,500 of this year’s additional needs payments were made to assist with household and heating bills, at a cost of over €1.5 million.
ANPs are available to assist applicants with “essential, once-off, exceptional expenditure” that they cannot pay from their weekly income, according to the Department of Social Protection.
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There is no set rate for the additional needs payment, according to the department.
“Anyone on a social welfare payment or working and getting a low income may qualify for an additional needs payment,” a spokesman said.
“The weekly household income, expenses and the type of assistance needed will be taken into consideration. An applicant will be required to provide evidence of identity, proof of address and evidence of income and expenditure in order to qualify for the scheme.”
The department said the rise in the number of applications reflects increased awareness of the payments following two advertising campaigns this year.
About 63 per cent of all applications are finalised within four weeks, the department said.
Social Democrats spokesman on social protection, Gary Gannon TD, said this waiting time is proving stressful for families.
“Firstly, these people apply for the ANP because they’re in desperation for basic provisions. Someone never plans to apply for the ANP; they do it when they’re in absolute dire straits, so any additional waiting time is going to cause distress.”
Sinn Féin TD Claire Kerrane, the party’s spokeswoman on social protection and rural development, said: “The main message to government is we haven’t seen the worst of it ... what’s it going to be like in the depths of winter?”
“If you have a utility bill today that you can’t pay, and you’re waiting two months for a decision on whether you can get the additional needs payment or not ... you would expect it in a more timely manner given it is an emergency payment.”
A department spokesman said it needed to assess whether each application was “essential”. “Where an application is complete and accompanied by the required documentation, it is generally processed in a matter of days,” he said. “However, where an application is not finalised within this timeframe, the delay is generally due to additional information or documentation being requested from the person to support their application. Like all social welfare payments, ANPs are subject to controls to detect and prevent fraud.”
Karl Cronin, regional manager for north Connacht and Ulster at the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) said there has been an increase in calls from people with “substantial electricity and utility bills which they were not expecting”.
“In rural areas, the cost of home heating has gone up, people are relying on bulk deliveries of kerosene for example, and it has literally doubled in price. It would have cost around €600 to fill an oil tank last year and that has now doubled to €1200 or €1400,” he said.
Tricia Keilthy, St Vincent de Paul’s head of social justice, said there has been a 20 per cent increase in the number of calls from households seeking assistance.
“We’re seeing a change in need,” she said. “People are requesting help more often and the amount of help they’re requesting is changing. It’s crisis management for a lot of households, and there’s huge anxiety about what lies ahead - will prices go up even further?”
Nessan Vaughan, vice chair of St Vincent de Paul’s national social justice committee and a volunteer in Donaghmede, Dublin said: “Sometimes you read the emails that come in and they’re quite distressing - things like ‘I don’t know what to do, I’ve never had to come to you before’.”
“Recently we visited someone who had literally run out of food. I’m not saying it’s everyone, but there is more of that.”
“People are in real hardship and they’re living week to week. Maybe they’ve had to go to hospital a few times and needed their money for the bus fares, or maybe they had a bereavement and they’re paying a funeral bill. It’s the unforeseen things, and when you’re on a tight budget it makes it so difficult.”