Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 6 Mar 1991

Vol. 406 No. 1

Written Answers. - Social Welfare Benefit.

Jim Mitchell

Question:

55 Mr. J. Mitchell asked the Minister for Social Welfare if a couple with one dependent child living on unemployment assistance are disqualified from the free fuel allowance merely because one other child is in employment; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

Minister for Social Welfare (Dr. Woods)

The national fuel scheme is designed to assist households who are dependent on long term social welfare or health board payments and who are unable to provide for their own heating needs.

The allowance of £5 per week is payable for a 26 week period from mid-October to mid-April. Almost 225,000 households are currently in receipt of the allowance at an estimated cost of £29.1 million in 1991. This is in addition to expenditure of £5.8 million this year on smokeless fuel allowance which I introduced last year to help low income households meet the additional costs arising from the ban on bituminous coal in built up areas of Dublin.

One of the conditions for entitlement to a fuel allowance is that the claimant must live alone or only with dependants, other eligible recipients or a person on unemployment assistance. Consequently, the allowance would not be payable where a member of the household is in employment.