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Social Welfare Benefits

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 November 2020

Tuesday, 3 November 2020

Questions (865)

Cormac Devlin

Question:

865. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the case of a person (details supplied); if the case will be reviewed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32677/20]

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Written answers

Carer's allowance (CA) is a means-tested social assistance payment made to a person who is habitually resident in the State and who is providing full-time care and attention to a child or an adult who has such a disability that as a result they require that level of care.

A fuel allowance is a payment under the National Fuel Scheme to help with the cost of heating a home during the winter months. It is paid to people who are in receipt of certain qualifying social welfare payments and who also satisfy certain other conditions. CA is not a qualifying payment for receipt of fuel allowance.

However, carers may qualify for fuel allowance if they are in receipt of half-rate carer's allowance and another qualifying social welfare payment. Alternatively, if the carer resides with their care recipient, that care recipient may be in receipt of a qualifying payment and entitled to apply for the fuel allowance in their own right.

I can confirm that the person concerned was in receipt of CA at half-rate from 27 June 2016 to 19 December 2018 as she was also in receipt of One Parent Family payment (OPF). OPF is a qualifying payment for fuel allowance.

Her OPF ceased on 19 December 2018 and she was re-rated from half-rate to full-rate CA from 20 December 2018 due to her being in receipt of no other Social Welfare payment.

The person concerned was entitled to fuel allowance while in receipt of OPF and half-rate CA. When her OPF payment ceased, she was no longer entitled to fuel allowance because she was no longer in receipt of a qualifying payment.

It is therefore not possible to review the person’s claim as she has no entitlement to fuel allowance.

Under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) scheme, a weekly or monthly supplement may be paid to assist people whose means are insufficient to meet their needs in certain circumstances.

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.

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 person concerned could apply for these payments from her local community welfare service.

I hope this clarifies the position for the Deputy.

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