Spending by the state on helping Clare people bury their loved ones has more than trebled here in four years.
More than €300,000 has been spent on exceptional needs payments by the Department of Social Protection in this county since 2015.
Under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme, the Department can help meet essential, once-off expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income – such as the cost of a funeral or burial.
Just over €30,000 was spent on 26 funerals in 2015.
That number has steadily increased here each year since, with expenditure in Clare passing the €100,000 mark last year across 43 different circumstances.
It would also suggest the cost of funerals is increasing here, with amount on average per funeral being paid doubling between 2015 and 2019 – it now stands at over €2,300.
However, payouts in Clare are lower than any other county in Munster in the last number of years, with just six counties availing of support from the Department on fewer occasions than Clare in 2019.
