Vol. 500 No. 4
297 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will increase the amount of free fuel allowance payable to recipients who are aged 70 years or older in view of the greater need which older citizens have for heat; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4076/99]
The national fuel scheme assists certain householders who are in receipt of 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 paid to eligible households for 26 weeks yearly.
An additional smokeless fuel allowance of £3 per week is payable during the heating season to fuel recipients in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Wexford, Arklow, Dundalk and Drogheda to help meet the additional costs arising from the ban on the sale of bituminous coal in those centres.
In recognition of the fact that it can be unpredictably cold in autumn and spring, the scheme is not confined to the winter months but runs for six months of the year, from mid-October to mid-April.
Expenditure on the National Fuel scheme has increased by approximately 20 per cent in the last 5 years from £37.5 million in 1993 to £45 million in 1998. This year a sum of £47 million has been provided in the Estimates for the scheme. It is estimated that increasing the basic allowance by £1 per week for those aged 70 years and over would cost an additional £2.5 million per year. Any increase in the rate of payment could only be considered in a budgetary context.
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. With regard to the payment rate, 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, substantial increases in all the social welfare primary payments of either £3 or £6 per week effective from June 1999 were announced in the budget last December. All fuel allowance recipients who are aged 70 years or more will receive an increase of £6 per week if single, £9 per week in the case of couples.
