Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 April 2013
568. Deputy Mattie McGrath asked the Minister for Social Protection the reason an illness benefit is not considered as a qualifying payment for the household benefits package; if there is any assistance that can be provided to a person who is unable to work due to a serious illness such as cancer and who is struggling to meet household bills; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15981/13]
View answerThe fuel allowance is a means tested weekly payment of €20 available for people on long term welfare schemes, including State pension, disability allowance, one-parent family payment and jobseeker’s allowance (after 15 months); it is currently paid for 26 weeks from October to April each year. The scheme is available to approximately 400,000 customers and will cost an estimated €211 million in 2013. Because of the very cold weather at the start of April, the fuel allowance was paid for an additional week this year.
The fuel allowance scheme was envisaged as a way of providing some additional support for those on long-term welfare payments during the winter season. As illness benefit is not a long-term scheme, fuel allowance is not payable.
Under my Department’s supplementary welfare allowance scheme, a special heating supplement may be paid to assist people who have special heating needs. A person may qualify for a heating supplement, if they can show that they have extra heating needs because of their age, medical condition or disability, are living alone or only with a dependent adult or dependent children and satisfy a means test. Approximately 3,200 people are currently in receipt of this supplement.
In addition, exceptional needs payments (ENP) may be made to help meet an essential, once-off cost which an applicant is unable to meet out of his or her own resources. There is no automatic entitlement to this payment. Each application is decided on the particular circumstances of the case. The provision for exceptional needs payments in 2013 is €47.6 million, with an additional €11.4 million for supplements.
