Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for permitting me to raise this issue today. A number of elderly people in particular have contacted me about letters they have received from the Department of Social and Family Affairs stating that their entitlement to the annual winter fuel allowance of €12.90 per week, as it is in Dublin, is now terminated. These people are tenants of Dublin City Council living in centrally controlled and centrally heated communal complexes. On average they pay €6 or €7 per week for 52 weeks or a minimum of €300 to the local authority. At the same time the fuel allowance operated by the Department of Social and Family Affairs lasts for 29 weeks from September to mid April. They were receiving this allowance which was worth approximately €375 per person per year.

I understand approximately 237 people have been identified by the Department of Social and Family Affairs as being in receipt of both benefits. This was determined in a trawl by the Department. I do not know how the trawl was initiated and how it was suddenly discovered after so many years — I would like to know for how many years this operated.

In total the €12.90 per week for 29 weeks of the year amounts to approximately €90,000 per annum. We are not talking about large sums of money and there is no question of fraud. This matter was raised by Deputies Upton and Quinn on 5 October. Last week I was sitting in the Chair when the Minister for Social and Family Affairs addressed the matter. He explained the Department's thinking on the matter. He did not give any indication of how the trawl came about. He expressed some sympathy for the people and said he would review the situation, as was his response to Deputies Upton and Quinn. Some 274,000 households are in receipt of the fuel allowance. The 237 people involved represent less than 0.1%. We are talking about very small numbers. These are virtually all elderly or disabled as otherwise they would not receive the fuel allowance.

Why should we not give them a Christmas box? Nobody was aware of the anomaly up to now. Nobody is complaining about it or suggesting they are being discriminated against. However, the old and disabled people in receipt of the allowance are sorely missing it since it has been withdrawn. They are missing the extra heat. Elderly and disabled people need such extra heat to which they had become accustomed. They are not to blame for what was an anomaly or an error in the Department of Social and Family Affairs.

I appeal to the Minister to do the generous and honourable thing and allow those 237 people who are in need of as much heat as they can get for the 29 months during which the fuel allowance is payable to retain it so that they can put on a fire occasionally and have the extra bit of heat that makes life tolerable.

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. It is an interesting case and as he stated no fraud was intended on the part of the 237 households. However, because of a glitch they were effectively receiving a double allowance for the same purpose. The aim of the national fuel scheme is to assist householders who are in receipt of long-term social welfare or Health Service Executive payments towards meeting their additional heating needs during the winter season. Fuel allowances are paid for 29 weeks from the end of September to mid-April. Some 274,000 customers, 151,000 with basic fuel allowance and 123,000 with smokeless fuel supplement, benefit under the scheme at a cost of €85.4 million in 2005. In that context €700,000 is a small amount.

Under the scheme a fuel allowance of €9.00 per week is paid to eligible households during this 29-week winter heating period, with an additional €3.90 per week being paid in the designated urban smokeless fuel zones, bringing the total amount in those areas to €12.90 per week. In addition to fuel allowance, more than 300,000 pensioners and other households qualify for electricity or gas allowances through the household benefits package, payable towards their heating, light and cooking costs throughout the year, at an overall cost of €108.8 million in 2005. There is also a facility available through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme to assist people in certain circumstances who have special heating needs. To qualify for an allowance under the national fuel scheme an applicant must be in receipt of a qualifying payment, live alone or only with a dependent spouse, partner, child or children, or with other eligible recipients.

In the course of a routine review of fuel allowance payments, the Department recently ceased allowance entitlement which had been paid in error to certain recipients who were in, or had moved to local authority accommodation with subsidised or low-cost heating. The main purpose of the review was to ensure that the allowance eligibility rules were being applied correctly and consistently. The allowances in question, which should not have been put in payment in the first place, were withdrawn in these cases with effect from the start of this winter heating season. The allowance was not included in their new pension books or in EFT payments. The Department is not seeking repayment of the overpayment of the allowance which arose in these cases.

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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That is very generous of it.

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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In other cases it has happened and from the taxpayer's point of view the Deputy understands why that is. There was no fraud by any of these people. As a long-standing policy within the scheme, fuel allowance is not payable to those who are able to provide for their heating needs from their own resources, for example, if they have access to their own fuel supply or benefit from a subsidised heating service such as those provided by Dublin City Council at a number of its housing complexes. The basis for this condition of the scheme is that the contribution that local authority tenants in communal heating situations make towards their heating costs is limited to a fixed and relatively small amount, typically approximately €6 per week, included as part of their overall rent charge. Unlike other tenants and social welfare clients generally, who must buy their own fuel at prevailing retail cost, these tenants are protected from increases in heating costs, the true cost of which are subsidised significantly by Dublin City Council and the other local authorities concerned.

In local authority communally heated dwellings, the subsidised heating is provided from September to May inclusive, which is approximately ten weeks longer than the duration of the national fuel scheme, which runs for 29 weeks from September to mid-April. To ease the burden on the tenant, payments to the local authority are spread over 52 weeks. In addition to heating each room in the flats, the local authority also provides hot water 24 hours a day, each day of the year, the charge for which is also included in the above costs. The central heating provided is not optional. Subsidised heating tends to be available mainly in the older flat-type complexes operated by the local authorities rather than the new individual units being constructed. These latter units typically have their own individual heating systems.

To retain the allowance in the case of the people concerned in this particular review, when neighbouring tenants in very similar circumstances are not eligible and are managing their budgets accordingly, would be difficult to support. The fact is that these people either were awarded an allowance in error initially or retained a previous legitimate allowance entitlement inadvertently when they moved to accommodation subsequently with subsidised heating.

Pensioners and other social welfare groups have received significant increases in their welfare payment rates this year and in recent years under this Government. This has improved their income situation considerably in real terms relative to solid fuel cost increases and to price inflation generally. The higher rates of primary payments are payable for a full 52 weeks of the year, a major change from what was the case previously. In view of the particular circumstances to which the Deputy and others have referred, the Minister has asked his Department to review the cases as a matter of urgency. However, any change to the scheme would have very significant cost implications and would have to be considered in the context of the budget and in the light of the resources available to the Minister for improvements in social welfare generally.

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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The cost implications are not significant. It would cost less than €750,000.