Colm Burke
Question:500. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated cost of making the entitlement to fuel allowance automatic at age 70 years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11051/22]
View answerTuesday, 1 March 2022
Questions (500, 501, 502)
Colm Burke
Question:501. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated cost of making the entitlement to fuel allowance automatic at age 75 years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11052/22]
View answerColm Burke
Question:502. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated cost of making the entitlement to fuel allowance automatic at age 80 years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11053/22]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 500, 501 and 502 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, to an estimated up to 400,000 low-income 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 estimated additional annual costs of the measures proposed, based on both the current weekly rate of Fuel Allowance at €33 and on the current duration of a 28 weeks fuel season, are set out in the table below.
|
Proposed Fuel Allowance Automatic Qualification Age |
Estimated Annual Additional Cost at Current Rate (€33) / Duration (28 weeks) |
|
Age 70 |
€296.15 million |
|
Age 75 |
€172 million |
|
Age 80 |
€94 million |
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 a means test and 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.
However, significant additional cost is not the only feature of the Deputy's proposal. Automatically awarding the fuel allowance payment to the cohort of people referred to by the Deputy would fundamentally change the nature of the scheme. The scheme would no longer be a targeted measure, as it would be awarded irrespective of a person's or a household's means. The measure would also result in multiple payments of fuel allowance in households that have more than one of the cohort of people referred to by the Deputy residing in them.
Any decision to extend the qualifying criteria for Fuel Allowance in the manner outlined by the Deputy 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.
Question No. 501 answered with Question No. 500.
Question No. 502 answered with Question No. 500.