The aim of the national fuel scheme is to assist qualified householders unable to provide for their own heating needs. To qualify for the allowance the applicant must be in receipt of a long-term social welfare or health board payment. In addition, they must live alone, or only with qualified dependants, a carer, a person in receipt of a short-term unemployment assistance payment or a person who qualifies for a fuel allowance in their own right, and they must satisfy a means test.
Applicants in receipt of means tested benefits are considered to have satisfied the means test. Those in receipt of contributory benefits, including certain EU pensions, benefits or equivalent payments, may have a combined household income of up to £10 per week, or savings of £5,400, above the appropriate maximum Irish contributory pension rate.
It is difficult to estimate precisely the costs of increasing the income limit for receipts of fuel allowance as requested by the Deputy, because of a lack of detailed information on the levels of income of those rejected on the basis of the current means test. Based on information on the number of applicants whose claims had been unsuccessful because they exceeded the current limits, it is estimated that the cost of increasing the limit by the amounts mentioned by the Deputy would be some £150,000. In addition raising the limit could also attract additional claims from people who had not applied before and it is not possible to quantify this factor.