The increase to this year’s back-to-school allowance has been brought forward to next week.

The extra €100 was announced last week as part of a suite of measures aimed at helping families with school-going children returning to school in September.

The move means parents of children aged four to 11-years-old will receive €240 instead of €140 this year.

Meanwhile, parents of children aged 12 and over will get €385 instead of €285.

The extra money was due to be paid out in August; however, the social protection minister this morning announced that it would be paid next week on Monday July 18th.

It means the payments will arrive in two parts – with the original payment arriving this week and the extra €100 arriving next week.

Some 124,000 families are due to benefit from the payment with applications to remain open until September.

Last week, the School Meals programme was also expanded to include a further 310 schools, which were recently given DEIS status.

Meanwhile, students availing of the school transport scheme will not be charged fees for the next academic year.

Additional reporting Sean Defoe.