Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 February 2022
533. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Social Protection the precise provisions in primary legislation which enable the introduction and extension of the households benefit package scheme; if she will provide details on the relevant ministerial announcements and ministerial orders with regard to the scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4288/22]
View answerThe household benefits package (HHB) comprises the electricity or gas allowance, and the free television licence. The package is generally available to people living in the State aged 66 years or over, who are in receipt of a social welfare type payment or who satisfy a means test. The package is also available to some people under the age of 66 who are in receipt of certain welfare type payments.
The HHB scheme is an administrative, non-statutory scheme and is not governed by legislation. The scheme was introduced and extended by Ministerial Announcement.
Where changes to non-statutory schemes have a cost component they are generally made in the context of the Budget and the changes announced as part of the Budget speech. A recent example of this would be the announcement in Budget 2020 of the change to the qualifying criteria of the HHB package for people under age 70 to allow for another adult to reside in the household. These Ministerial announcements at Budget time are publicly available.
Non-statutory schemes are governed by guidelines which set out the conditions of entitlement in detail. These guidelines are published on the Gov.ie website. As schemes are changed, the published guidelines are amended accordingly. Decisions in relation to applications for non-statutory schemes are made by Officers of my Department based on these published guidelines.
The HHB operational guidelines were recently amended to reflect the fact that changes are made by “Ministerial Announcement” rather than “Ministerial Order”, as this was deemed a more accurate description of the process and in line with the description provided in the guidelines of other non-statutory schemes such as the Free Travel scheme. There has been no change in how the scheme is administered.
I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
