The aim of the national fuel scheme is to assist householders who are on long-term social welfare or health board payments and who are unable to provide for their own heating needs. A payment of £5 per week is normally paid to eligible households. However, an additional £3 per week is paid in smokeless zones, bringing the total amount in those areas to £8 per week. In the case of a relatively small number of people living in smokeless zones, the £3 per week smokeless fuel supplement only is payable.
The average weekly number of recipients of the fuel allowances in the 2000-01 fuel season was 287,400. Approximately 175,000 of these received £5 per week, over 112,000 received £8 per week and less than 3,000 received £3 per week. Total expenditure on the scheme in the 2000-01 fuel season was £49.9 million.
The national and smokeless fuel schemes were reviewed in 1998 as part of my Department's series of programme evaluations. The review group took the view that improvements in the national fuel scheme cannot be looked at in isolation from the improvements in the primary weekly payment rates. The group concluded that the present rates of payment should remain unchanged if improvements in primary payment rates fully compensated recipients for all price inflation, including fuel price inflation. In that regard, the increases in primary payments that I introduced in the three budgets since the scheme was reviewed have provided for a substantial real increase after fully compensating for inflation, including fuel price inflation. The increases in primary payments of £8 to £10 per week that I brought into effect in April of this year are the largest ever implemented.