Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Question 98: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if her attention has been drawn to the financial hardship many elderly people will have to endure in winter 2008 due to the rise in the price of home heating and that many elderly people will be unable to heat their homes properly; if she has plans to increase the fuel allowance for old age pensioners and other recipients; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25154/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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This Department's role is to assist social welfare recipients with heating costs, both through their basic payments and through the household benefits package with fuel, electricity and gas allowances. These schemes have been improved significantly in recent years. The national fuel allowance scheme assists 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 allowance is now payable for 30 weeks and benefits over 290,000 people at an aggregate cost of €170 million this year. The payment rate has also increased to €18 per week or €21.90 for recipients living in designated smokeless areas. The allowance represents a contribution towards a person's normal heating expenses. It is not intended to meet those costs in full.

Electricity and gas allowances under the household benefits package, are payable throughout the year to over 355,000 pensioners, people with disabilities, and carer households towards their heating, light and cooking costs at an estimated overall scheme cost of €159m in 2008. The supplementary welfare allowance scheme can also be used to assist people in certain circumstances with specific heating needs due to infirmity or a particular medical condition.

The income maintenance needs of those on social welfare payments have been met in recent years through increased primary social welfare rates. Government policy has focused on significantly increasing social welfare rates to ensure that people can meet their basic living costs, including heating, throughout the year and also achieve an improvement in quality of life. This is a more costly approach than increasing fuel allowance as the increase is paid for the full year and not just the 30 weeks of the winter heating season. Since December 2001, overall inflation has increased by 27% while energy product prices have increased by 65%. However, increases in social welfare payments have been between 71% and 88% in the same period. Any changes to social welfare programmes to assist with heating costs will be considered in a budgetary context. However, the main focus of the Government will be on increasing social welfare payments in real terms to enable social welfare recipients to better meet heating and other needs.