Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 82: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her plans to amend the household benefits package to allow greater flexibility in the scheme to those households whose principal source of heating is from oil. [24785/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The household benefits package is generally available to people living in the State, aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of a social welfare type payment or who satisfy a means test. It is also available to people aged under 66 who are in receipt of certain disability social welfare payments or carer's allowance. The package includes the electricity and gas allowance, telephone allowance and free television licence schemes. There are currently 355,000 people in receipt of household benefits at an annual cost of €317 million.

The electricity allowance element of the household benefits package is paid as a credit on the person's electricity bill. The natural gas allowance is an alternative to the electricity allowance for people whose homes are connected to a natural gas supply. People can choose to have the allowance applied to either their electricity or their gas bill, whichever is most beneficial to them. The national fuel allowance scheme also provides assistance to householders on long-term social welfare or health service executive (HSE) payments with meeting the cost of their heating needs during the winter season. Fuel allowances are paid for 30 weeks from end-September to end-April. The allowance represents a contribution towards a person's normal heating expenses. It is not intended to meet those costs in full. The allowance is €18 per week with an additional €3.90 per week paid to those in smokeless fuel areas.

Fuel allowances are incorporated in the recipient's weekly social welfare payment. This reflects the objective that the total weekly income of benefit and assistance recipients, including the fuel allowance, is sufficient to meet all of their income needs, including heating costs. It is estimated that over 290,000 people will benefit under the scheme in 2008 at a cost of €173 million. There are no plans at present to amend the household benefits to include an allowance for oil based heating. However, I will continue to review the operation of the scheme with a view to identifying the scope for further improvements as resources permit.