Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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1100. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will consider extending the fuel allowance payment beyond April (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18201/21]

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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1131. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will approve the extension of the fuel allowance for an additional four weeks in view of the costs incurred by persons in earlier spells of extremely cold weather and the additional time spent at home resulting in higher fuel costs; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18896/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1100 and 1131 together.

The Fuel Allowance is a payment of €28.00 per week for 28 weeks (a total of €784 each year) from October to April, to over 372,000 low income households, at an estimated cost of €300 million in 2021. 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.

The Fuel Allowance is an important measure that assists pensioners and other welfare dependent householders to address income deficiency, especially during the winter when a household faces increased heating needs. The duration of the scheme is designed to coincide with the coldest periods of the year and it is for this reason the scheme runs from October to mid-April. Any proposal to change this could only be considered while taking account of overall Government policy and in the budgetary context.

In Budget 2021, the Government targeted one third of carbon tax revenues to go towards boosting the incomes of the poorest in our society. Based on ESRI research, three key DSP payments were targeted for increases in the budget as a result - the Fuel Allowance, the Qualified Child Allowance and the Living Alone Allowance. From January 2021, the Fuel Allowance was increased by €3.50 per week to €28 for a period of 28 weeks, while the increase in carbon tax on solid fuels will not take effect until May 2021. This ensured that recipients benefitted from the increased payment over the winter period.

In the context of the COVID-19 emergency, the Government has already allocated c. €11.5 billion in a package of social protection measures to assist people impacted by COVID-19. This demonstrates the Government’s firm commitment to provide effective targeted supports during the Covid-19 Pandemic. The Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) has supported over 850,000 people at a cost of over €6.4 billion. The PUP scheme will remain open until 30th June 2021 and will continue to be kept under review. Future decisions by Government will be informed by the trajectory of the pandemic and the evolving public health situation.

The Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme/Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme was also put in place. During its lifetime, just under 650,000 workers employed by just under 70,000 employers were supported by the TWSS to the value of just over €2.7 billion. The TWSS was itself refined and replaced by the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) from 1 September. Since then, the EWSS has supported just under 550,000 workers employed by just under 50,000 employers to a value of €2.3 billion. Almost 142,000 people have been medically certified for receipt of the Enhanced Illness Benefit with approximately €88 million paid through this income support.

In addition to core income supports, the Department put in place a range of other targeted measures during the initial stages of pandemic, including:

- special arrangements for the Rent Supplement Scheme, and in particular, enhanced access arrangements for victims of domestic violence.

- an Enterprise Support Grant for Small Businesses; special support arrangements for self-employed people.

- funding was continued to the School Meals Programme during periods of school closures under Level 5 restrictions.

- changes to Redundancy schemes to extend the period of time that people can be laid-off without automatically triggering redundancy terms.

- arrangements for parents to register electronically the birth of their new-born babies.

Finally, under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme, Exceptional Needs Payments may be made to help meet an essential, once-off cost which customers are unable to meet out of their own resources, and this may include exceptional heating costs. Decisions on such payments are made on a case-by-case basis.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.