Phil Hogan
Question:38 Mr. Hogan asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the reason the fuel allowance has not been increased. [29671/00]
Written Answers. - Social Welfare Benefits.
Jim O'Keeffe
Question:49 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs when the free fuel allowance was fixed at £5 per week; and his views on whether an increase is due. [29806/00]
Liz McManus
Question:50 Ms McManus asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the plans to increase the level of fuel allowance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29704/00]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 38, 49 and 50 together.
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 paid to eligible households and £8 per week is paid in smokeless zones. The fuel season has been increased from 26 weeks to 29 weeks, as announced in this year's budget. The current fuel season will be extended by two weeks in April 2001 and the next fuel season will start one week earlier in October 2001.
The standard £5 per week rate of fuel allowance was set at its present level in 1985. However, the fuel allowance payment rate cannot be looked at in isolation from primary payment rates as every person who gets a fuel allowance also gets a weekly primary social welfare payment, such as unemployment assistance or old age pension. It is important that the overall increase, taking primary payments and fuel allowances together, is sufficient to fully compensate for all inflation, including fuel price inflation.
Increases in overall weekly social welfare payment rates have compensated fully for inflation, including fuel price inflation, over the period from October 1985 to October 2000. For example, the total weekly payment for a single retirement pensioner with a fuel allowance rose by over 79% while the total weekly payment for an unemployed person rose by over 106%. This does not take into account the increases announced in last week's budget which were the largest ever provided. These will provide a real increase after fully compensating for inflation.
To put this in perspective, fuel price inflation was 25.3% in total between October 1985 and October 2000, as tracked in the fuel and light component of the consumer price index. The overall consumer price index rose by 52.1% in that period.
I did not increase the rate of fuel allowance this year because any such increase would be paid for only part of the year. I opted instead for giving people a real increase in their basic social welfare payment for 52 weeks of the year.
This is a more expensive option than increasing the fuel allowance payment rate but I believe it is the correct approach to take as it gives people greater flexibility in meeting their needs.
Also, it can be very difficult for people on low incomes to adjust to the loss of the fuel allowance in April when the fuel season ends. Those difficulties would be made worse by increasing the fuel allowance instead of giving a larger all-year-round increase.
Accordingly, all social welfare primary payments are increased in 2001 by either £8 or £10 per week. The qualified adult allowance will also be increased by amounts ranging from £7 to £15. This means that in 2001, a pensioner couple, where both are over pension age, will get a combined increase of between £20 and £25 per week. Furthermore, these increases will come into effect from April 2001, a month earlier than this year.