Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 341: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the reason persons coming from unemployment benefit or disability benefit into a community employment scheme do not receive fuel allowance while those coming from unemployment assistance do; and if he has plans to reform same to ensure that all such people receive a weekly fuel allowance. [29611/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The aim of the national fuel scheme is to assist householders on long-term social welfare or health service executive payments with meeting the cost of their additional heating needs during the winter season. Fuel allowances are paid for 29 weeks from end-September to mid-April and are not intended to meet the full cost of heating.

Eligibility to the fuel allowance scheme is subject to means and other conditions. The main conditions that apply to the fuel allowance scheme are that a person must be in receipt of a qualifying payment, must satisfy a means test and must either be living alone or with a qualifying dependant.

People in receipt of short-term social welfare payments such as jobseeker's benefit, short-term jobseeker's assistance (i.e. less than 13 weeks), illness benefit or occupational injuries benefit are not normally eligible to receive a fuel allowance.

However, there is a special arrangement in place to pay the smokeless fuel allowance element (€3.90 per week) to people who live in one of the designated urban smokeless fuel areas and who have been receiving one of these social welfare payment types for 13 weeks or more.

To be eligible for this 'supplementary fuel allowance', applicants must satisfy the other standard conditions of the fuel allowance scheme, in particular that the combined weekly household income must not be more than €100 above the reference old age contributory pension rate applicable to the family size. As with the standard fuel allowance, only one smokeless fuel allowance is payable per household. Applications for this smokeless fuel allowance should be made through the local social welfare office.

Any changes to the fuel allowance scheme, such as allowing eligibility to people on short-term social welfare schemes, would have significant cost implications and would have to be considered in a budgetary context and in the light of resources available to me for improvements in social welfare generally.