Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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777. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the cost of increasing the rate of fuel allowance from €24.50 by every €1, €5.50 and €10 per week; the one-off cost for increasing the fuel allowance rate by those amounts from 28 September 2020 for the 2020/2021 fuel season; the number of expected recipients; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22582/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The estimated cost of increasing the rate of Fuel Allowance by €1, €5.50 and €10 per week is as shown in the table below:

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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778. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if the fuel allowance season for 2020-2021 will run for 28 or 32 weeks; the cost of providing the additional four weeks in 2021; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22583/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The fuel allowance is a payment of €24.50 per week for 28 weeks (a total of €686 each year) from October to April, to over 369,000 low income households, at an estimated cost of €261.35 million in 2020. The purpose of this payment is to assist these households with their energy costs. The allowance represents a contribution towards the energy costs of a household. It is not intended to meet those costs in full. Only one allowance is paid per household.

As a result of the Covid-19 Emergency, the then Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection secured Government approval to extend the 2019 / 2020 Fuel Allowance season by an additional four weeks. This extended the payment of €24.50 per week to all recipients of the fuel allowance from Friday 10 April (when it was due to expire) until Friday 8 May 2020.

The full year cost of providing an additional four weeks payment to fuel allowance recipients in 2021 is estimated to be €36.6 million, at current rates and recipient numbers. My Department is currently finalising its estimates for 2021 and as such, these estimates are subject to change. Any decision to extend the fuel season for 2020 / 2021 would need to be considered in an overall budgetary context.

I trust this clarifies the position for the Deputy.