The Department's role is to assist social welfare recipients with heating costs, both through their basic payments and through the household benefits package with fuel, electricity and gas allowances. These schemes have been improved significantly in recent years. The national fuel allowance scheme assists householders on long-term social welfare or health service executive (HSE) payments with meeting the cost of their heating needs during the winter season. The allowance represents a contribution towards a person's normal heating expenses. It is not intended to meet those costs in full.
Fuel allowance is now payable for 32 weeks and benefits over 318,000 people at an aggregate cost of €217m million in 2009. The payment rate is now €20 per week or €23.90 for recipients living in designated smokeless areas. Electricity and gas allowances under the household benefits package, are payable throughout the year to over 380,000 pensioners, people with disabilities, and carer households towards their heating, light and cooking costs at an estimated overall scheme cost of €200m in 2009. The electricity allowance covers standing charges plus VAT and up to 2,400 units of electricity in each billing period.
The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, administered by community welfare officers, can be used to assist people in certain circumstances with specific heating needs due to infirmity or a particular medical condition. Heating needs can also be met under the exceptional needs payments provisions of the scheme where a person is unable to meet such needs out of his/her resources. Eligible people would normally be in receipt of a social welfare or health service executive payment. Since January 2010, community welfare officers have made a total of 3,840 payments at a cost of € 908,000 under the exceptional needs payment scheme to assist people with increased gas, ESB and other fuel costs arising from the recent adverse weather conditions. Assistance will continue to be provided towards the payment of heating bills for those in need.
The exceptional needs payments scheme is considered to be the appropriate response to heating needs arising from the recent cold weather. Community welfare officers are best placed to deal with the situation having local knowledge and taking individual circumstances into account. Improvements to the fuel allowance scheme, such as an increase in the rate of payment or an extension of the duration of the fuel season, would have considerable cost implications. Paying fuel allowance for an extra four weeks in 2010 at current payment rates would cost an additional €28m, bringing total annual expenditure on the scheme to some €245m. Any changes to the scheme will be considered in a budgetary context and in the light of resources available for improvements in social welfare payments generally.