Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 March 2023
84. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Social Protection if her Department will ensure that households that have accumulated significant debts, including arrears on bills and on prepayment meters, have access to sufficient support to avoid a long-term legacy of indebtedness and reduced financial resilience among the poorest households in Ireland; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15179/23]
View answerWill the Minister for Social Protection ask her Department to ensure that households that have accumulated significant debts, including arrears on bills and prepayment meters, have access to sufficient support to avoid a long-term legacy of indebtedness and reduced financial resilience among the poorest households in Ireland?
The Department of Social Protection has an important role in supporting the most vulnerable in society. It is important to note that the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, is currently running a public campaign informing people of their rights if they are struggling with utility payments. It also notifies people that providers are obliged to work with them on a payment plan. From the Department of Social Protection's perspective, the supplementary welfare allowance scheme provides, where necessary, additional needs payments to help to meet essential expenses that people cannot pay from their weekly income such as arrears that have accumulated on energy bills and on prepay meters. The Government has approved €66 million for the additional needs payment schemes and €3.27 million for recurring supplements in 2023. This is a demand-led scheme with no budget cap. Payments are made at the discretion of the officers administering the scheme who consider all the relevant circumstances of the case to ensure the payments target those most in need of assistance. This assistance is available to anyone who needs it, even those who are working but on a low income.
In response to the ongoing cost-of-living pressures, budget 2023 saw the largest social protection package in the history of the State at a total of €2.1 billion. Some €1.1 billion of this package has been targeted to provide a wide range of lump-sum payments and provided for a wide range of assistance to alleviate the cost-of-living pressures, including the autumn cost-of-living double week payment; the double payment of child benefit to support families with children which was paid alongside the regular child benefit payment in November 2022; a €400 lump-sum fuel allowance payment; a €200 lump-sum payment for pensioners and people with a disability receiving the living alone allowance; a €500 lump-sum payment to families in receipt of the working family payment, disability allowance, the blind pension, the invalidity pension and the carer's support grant; a 100% Christmas bonus which was paid to all long-term social welfare recipients; and a €12 across-the-board increase on all social welfare payments. Crucially, a €200 spring bonus will also be paid to all long-term social welfare recipients at the end of April 2023 and an additional €100 per child to support families with children will be paid alongside the regular child benefit payment in June 2023.
I thank the Minister of State for his response. If we cast our minds back to the colder months of last year and early this year, in November, December and January, the issue on most of our lips was energy poverty and the number of families being cast into it. Two in every five households were experiencing energy poverty at that time. If we turn then to today, while the weather has changed and the dependence on heating homes is lower, the debts accrued by those families have not gone away. They had to borrow to pay for energy. They went into debt with energy suppliers. I am glad the Minister of State mentioned the additional needs payment scheme. It is important and it has been a lifeline for many families but many of the people who have been cast into poverty are probably not even aware this fund exists.
That it relies upon the discretion of an officer and a person having to go in may be an issue. We must work to provide a degree of amnesty for families who had to borrow to avoid going without.
I should also reference the €600 energy credit, which benefited bill and prepay meter users alike. Persistent difficulty with indebtedness can be helped through budgetary advice from the Money Advice & Budgeting Service, MABS. While this engagement is not a precondition for any assistance, the service provides impartial advice and expertise to help people manage money and take control of debt. It may be useful to mention that, under the supplementary welfare allowance, SWA, scheme, a supplement may be awarded to assist with ongoing or recurring costs that cannot be met from the person's own resources and are deemed to be necessary. This can include a heating supplement when a person has a need for additional heating due to ill health or infirmity. The heating supplement is not restricted to the fuel season and can be paid throughout the year. Heating supplements are payable at the discretion of the officers administering the scheme and all the relevant circumstances of the case are taken into account. There are currently 950 people in receipt of the heating supplement.
That is really important information about the heating supplement being paid outside of the winter months. How many families are aware of that? For example, if you take the figure of two out of every five families in the country being cast into energy poverty several months ago, I imagine some sort of awareness campaign is needed so people know there are supports. I accept there are supports. I do not think anybody here willingly or wantonly has cast people into energy poverty but such is the experience in family homes at the moment, they are still struggling to play catch-up with debt. That is an important initiative. There needs to be a public awareness campaign to let people know there are supports available. We also need to get in front of the issue. I believe that last week, Friends of the Earth, with which the Minister of State will be familiar, referenced that the grants were skewed towards wealthier households, with the €600 payment he mentioned being universal rather than targeted, which meant that people who suffered at the coldest end were not able to access payments to meet their full energy needs. Awareness campaigns are needed and greater targeted investments and income supports are required to alleviate what was a drastic winter for many.
It is a very important question. I came across a few cases in which people who were on prepay systems found it hard to get the household energy credit from the relevant provider. I saw a reply to a parliamentary question from the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, in which he said that if people did not get their energy credit, they should go to the Department for an additional needs payment. Some of the people I know who had not been credited did not want to go to the Department seeking the additional needs payment. It may be an issue the Minister's Department should check with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications to check whether some of these companies are not implementing the scheme properly and then telling people to go to their local community welfare officer. That is not the spirit of the household energy support. It was supposed to be for everybody, regardless of their means.
I will answer the last question first. I recall there were significant efforts made by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications in relation to prepay meters. You should not be without the payment if you are on a prepay meter. We can talk about specific circumstances later but there was a separate fund set up in that Department for that.
I acknowledge the Deputy's point about universal measures. Additional needs payments are obviously very targeted, as is the heating supplement. I take his point about publicity on board. I believe there was a campaign last year that raised the number of applications. For the Deputy's information, in a point that also relates to the cohort of people we are discussing, we are currently examining developing research with the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, on people in persistent poverty. It is not consistent poverty, but persistent poverty, that is, people in circumstances in which year on year and decade on decade, they still find themselves in poverty. We are aware there is a group of people who need additional help and we are examining that further with work this year.
