Aengus Ó Snodaigh
Question:239. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection the estimated cost of extending fuel allowance to recipients of family income supplement. [30222/14]
View answerWednesday, 9 July 2014
Questions (239, 241)
Aengus Ó Snodaigh
Question:241. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection the estimated cost of reducing the current long-term requirement of 15 months for access to fuel allowance via certain payments to ten months, six months and three months. respectively. [30224/14]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 239 and 241 together.
The fuel allowance is a payment of €20 to low income households to assist them with their energy costs. The allowance is paid for 26 weeks from October to April. The payment represents a contribution towards the energy costs of a household. It is not intended to meet those costs in full. Only one allowance is paid per household.
The allowance is paid to approximately 400,000 customers at an estimated cost of €208 million in 2014. This includes people in receipt of job-seekers allowance or basic supplementary welfare allowance for more than 15 months (390 days).
Family Income Supplement (FIS) is a weekly tax-free payment available to employees with children. It gives extra financial support to people on low pay. FIS is not a qualifying payment for fuel allowance. However, if a person is in receipt of one-parent family payment and also receiving FIS they may be entitled to fuel allowance subject to meeting the other criteria for the scheme.
The information sought by the Deputy is not readily available to the Department as there are a number of qualifying conditions for receipt of fuel allowance. In addition to being in receipt of a qualifying payment a person must live alone or only with certain excepted people and also be unable to meet the costs of heating their home. All of these conditions would have to be considered by the Department in order determine the costs associated with improvements to the scheme.
I have no plans to extend fuel allowance scheme at this time.