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

The number of recipients of fuel allowance fluctuates as people join and exit the scheme and as their circumstances change. There was a significant drop in the number of recipients of long-term jobseeker's allowance from 2018 to 2019 and this is reflected in the number of this cohort who were also in receipt of fuel allowance. The number of long-term jobseeker's allowance recipients with fuel allowance fell from 59,961 in December 2018 to 48,689 in December 2019, which was a fall of 11,272 for the scheme. We expanded the fuel allowance in the most recent budget. The Deputy himself raised with me the number of people who were just marginally over the income threshold and they were excluded, whether it was €2 or €3. Then there was a big increase for the over-70s. They could earn up to €500 per week for a single person or €1,000 for a couple. We have expanded the scheme and over 32,000 more people have received the fuel allowance since the budget.

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