Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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252. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the details of the updated income limits for the fuel allowance scheme in 2022. [2712/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Fuel Allowance is a payment of €33.00 per week for 28 weeks (a total of €924 over a full fuel season) from October to April, to 371,000 low-income households, at an estimated cost of €323 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.

In Budget 2022, as well as increasing the weekly rate of fuel allowance by €5 to €33 per week, with immediate effect, we also made a number of reforms to the fuel allowance scheme including:

- Increasing the weekly means threshold by €20 to €120 above the appropriate rate of State Pension (Contributory) representing a 20% increase and enabling more people to qualify for this support.  The €120 allowable means is significantly more than the €33 weekly rate of Fuel Allowance.

- The qualifying period for Jobseeker’s and Supplementary Welfare Allowance recipients was reduced from 15 to 12 months with effect from September 2022, again enabling more people to qualify for the support.

As the Deputy is aware, the original intention was to introduce the revised means test for the Fuel Allowance on 1st January 2022.  Cognisant of rising fuel costs, I asked my officials to prioritise the work required so that this change could be implemented at the same time as the increase in the Fuel Allowance in October 2021.  My Department has completed this work.  

In addition, 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 from 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.