Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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Question 31: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the steps she will take to allow time spent on JobBridge to count towards the accrual of time for eligibility for the fuel allowance in view of the fact that the costs arising from participation in JobBridge more than swallow up the additional €50 paid and as such the household's need for the fuel allowance can be just as great as for a person who has been out of paid employment for a similar length of time but remains on jobseeker's allowance rather than entering JobBridge. [36249/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I have no plans to amend the guidelines to allow the time spent on jobbridge to count towards the accrual of time for eligibility for the fuel allowance. My Department will spend over €530 million in 2011 on the fuel scheme and the telephone, gas and electricity elements of the household benefits package which will benefit some 390,000 people on household benefits and 375,000 on the fuel allowance. In 2005 there were 325,000 people on household benefits and 265,000 on the fuel allowance at a cost of €280 million. The costs have almost doubled in six years while the number of customers has risen by more than 20%.

An intern participating in jobbridge will continue to receive the social welfare entitlements, including secondary entitlements such as fuel allowance, that they were receiving immediately prior to commencing the scheme. However, during their jobbridge internship, interns will not receive additional benefits, such as fuel allowance, if they were previously not entitled to this benefit before they began their internship. The objective of the jobbridge scheme is to keep unemployed people close to the labour market and to give them the opportunity to gain quality work experience thereby increasing their employability.