Education Authority: School transport payments delayed

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption, The payments are made when the EA cannot provide a place in a bus or taxi
  • Author, Robbie Meredith
  • Role, ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ News NI Education Correspondent

Payments from the Education Authority (EA) due to 73 families to transport their children to school have been delayed for three days.

If a pupil is eligible for school transport but the EA cannot provide a place in a bus or taxi, parents can receive money to make alternative arrangements.

The payments are monthly and were due on Friday 30 September.

But the EA said the payments would not be made until Monday 3 October.

It said the delay was "due to technical and staffing difficulties".

"We appreciate the frustration this delay may cause and offer our sincere apologies to the 73 impacted families," the EA said.

About 84,000 pupils in Northern Ireland are eligible for home-to-school transport on a bus, a train or a taxi if they live more than two miles from their primary school or three miles from their post-primary school.

But the EA makes payments to the parents of some eligible pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) or do not live close to a transport route.

The school has to confirm the child's attendance in class for the money to be paid.

'We budget for it'

One parent who contacted ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ News NI said his family was depending on the money coming in on time.

"We have an expectation to get that money on the last Friday of every month and we budget for it," he said.

"I'm dependent on getting that payment on time.

"We've already spent our own money on fuel for a month to get our child to school.

"We shouldn't have to go cap in hand to get what the children are entitled to or be left in circumstances like this."