St Vincent de Paul’s (SVP) regional offices received an average of 30 calls a day during August from worried parents who were unable to afford back-to-school costs.
The volume of calls from families in need is also on the rise in Mullingar, on a par with national figures.
The charitable organisation said that overall demand for their services is up 20% from last year due to the rising cost of bills.
One-parent families have been the worst affected by rising costs and accounted for half of all requests in the month of August.