Edinburgh disabled mother of three hits out at the council over late "vital" school clothing grant payment

The mother of three, who has two school age children, asked to remain anonymous. She told the Evening News that she believed no payments of the vital clothing allowance had been paid to anyone in Edinburgh as scheduled last Friday, July 12.

The council has denied that, saying there was only a small number of such cases, with thousands of Edinburgh families receiving the payment in time.

Edinburgh parents can apply for clothing grants of £125 for primary school pupils and £157 for secondary pupils, to pay for school uniforms for the new academic year starting in August.

Speaking on Monday, the concerned mother of three said: “I spoke to the council on Friday who advised they were aware of batches being missed and they would be rectified by close of play on Friday or over the weekend.

“If nothing was received over the weekend then I was to phone on Monday. I've just spoken to a call handler who's advised me to wait 10 days on a response from the department as they don't have a phone line, only the online forms which I completed on Friday.

“There is no direct contact for this issue and we are being told to wait 10 days on a response for an explanation. Just trying to communicate with them is impossible.

Edinburgh parents can apply for clothing grants ahead of the new school year in August. Photo by John Devlin.

“I have got two children at school, one in secondary and one starting at primary. These payments are vital. I explained to the council this morning that I had an appointment booked for shoes but can’t go ahead with it now as I haven’t received this grant.

“This has never been a problem in the past. I think it’s possibly a lack of staff. The only information I’m getting just now is to wait 10 days. The woman I spoke to on Friday said she was inundated with mothers with the exact same problem as me.

“The advice she was given was that it would be sorted by the end of Friday, but here we are. The council has now started a complaints process for me as I’m really not happy.”

The mother of three has now been paid the clothing grants in full. She added: “I’m very surprised at this but it does show there is issues within the system. I feel for others who are affected.”

A Council spokesperson said: “We appreciate that this benefit is really important to the thousands of parents and guardians who receive it each year from us automatically. The automatic payments have been made but in a small number of cases further work is required and the team is processing these as a priority.”