Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I understand the issue with regard to people on the disability payment. I, too, have a constituent who has been out sick with a bad back for the past two to three months.

She asked me if she could get the fuel allowance and I had to explain to her that she could not because she was outside the criteria. The payment is framed in this way 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. We are trying to ensure the fuel allowance payment goes to those who are most vulnerable to fuel poverty, including those reliant on social protection payments for longer periods, who are unlikely to have additional resources of their own. Any decision to extend the eligibility criteria for fuel allowance to those on short-term payments would result in significant extra funding requirements for the scheme and would have to be considered in the budget. However, the matter is being reviewed now and I would like to see what that review says.

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