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 – £8 per week in smokeless zones – is made to eligible households for 26 weeks from mid October to mid-April.
To be eligible for assistance under the national fuel scheme, a person must satisfy a means test. A substantial improvement in the means test was introduced by me in the 1999 budget. A person may now have a combined household income of up to £30 per week or savings-investments of up to £22,400 over and above their pension and still qualify for fuel allowance.
Any increase in the rate of payment would have to be considered in light of the modest increase overall in domestic fuel prices since the current rate of the fuel allowance was set, taking into account the substantial increases in primary payment rates over the same period.
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 rates, the group concluded that the 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 social welfare primary payments of either £3 or £6 per week were paid from June 1999. Further increases of either £4 or £7 took effect at the beginning of May 2000.