Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 31 May 2022
488. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Social Protection the measures that are in place to support people with chronic illnesses and with disabilities who require additional heating to access the fuel allowance on compassionate grounds. [28059/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Fuel Allowance is a payment of €33.00 per week for 28 weeks (a total of €924 each year) from October to April, at an estimated cost of €366 million in 2022. The purpose of this payment is to assist qualifying 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 the Department in as targeted a manner as possible. This ensures that the Fuel Allowance payment goes to those households 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.
While consideration is given to any requests to extend eligibility to the Fuel Allowance, any decision to enable the award of Fuel Allowance on a discretionary or compassionate basis would fundamentally alter the nature of the scheme. Any such change would require significant additional funding for the Fuel Allowance scheme, require new administrative processes and support and would have to be considered in the context of overall budgetary negotiations.
Qualifying schemes for Fuel Allowance include Disability Allowance, Invalidity Pension, Blind Pension and Incapacity Supplement. There is also a household composition test and a means test applies to those in receipt of social insurance payments such as, for example, State Pension (Contributory).
Under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme, a special heating supplement may be paid to assist people in certain circumstances. My Department also provides Exceptional Needs Payments which 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.
