Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 March 2022
498. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Social Protection if consideration will be given to amending the criteria for fuel allowance in order that persons that are living with another family member, earning a low income and not in receipt of one of the qualifying payments for fuel allowance would not be disqualified from same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11038/22]
View answer499. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Social Protection if consideration will be given to amending the criteria for fuel allowance in order that persons that are living with children of working age that are earning a low income and not in receipt of one of the qualifying payments for fuel allowance would not be disqualified from same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11039/22]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 498 and 499 together.
The Fuel Allowance is a payment of €33.00 per week for 28 weeks (a total of €924 each year) from October to April, which is supporting up to an estimated 400, 000 households in 2022, at an estimated cost of €366 million in 2022. The purpose of this payment is to assist these households with their energy costs. The allowance 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 criteria for Fuel Allowance are framed in order to direct the limited resources available to my Department in as targeted a manner as possible. To qualify for the fuel allowance payment a person must satisfy all the qualifying criteria including the household composition criteria. This ensures that the fuel allowance payment goes to those who are more vulnerable to fuel poverty including those reliant on social protection payments for longer periods and who are unlikely to have additional resources of their own.
To satisfy the household composition criteria an applicant may live alone or only with:
- a qualified spouse / civil partner / cohabitant or qualified child(ren); (if the qualified spouse is in receipt of half rate carers, in addition to the IQA payment, they may qualify for fuel allowance, subject to a means test) or
- a person in receipt of a qualifying payment who would be entitled to the allowance in their own right or
- a person who is in receipt of carer’s allowance or carer’s benefit in respect of providing full-time care and attention to the fuel allowance applicant or their qualified spouse / civil partner / cohabitant or qualified child(ren) or
- a person receiving pandemic unemployment payment (PUP), a person receiving short-term jobseeker's allowance (JA) or basic Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) - i.e., less than 391 days for JA and less than 15 months/456 days for SWA).
Fuel allowance is not payable if an applicant lives with any person, including a family member who is not covered by the criteria outlined above.
Any decision to extend the qualifying criteria for Fuel Allowance in the manner outlined by the Deputy would change the targeted nature of the scheme and could only be considered while taking account of the overall budgetary context and the availability of financial resources.
Under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme, Exceptional Needs Payments may be made to help meet an essential, once-off cost which customers are unable to meet out of their own resources, and this may include exceptional heating costs. Decisions on such payments are made on a case-by-case basis.
I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
