Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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532. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection when a decision will be made in relation to a working family payment application by a person (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4282/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Working Family Payment (WFP) is an income tested, in work payment which provides additional financial support to employees on low earnings relative to the number of qualified children. In order to qualify for WFP an applicant's weekly family income must not exceed the fixed limit for their family size.

An online application for WFP was received from the person concerned on 07 July 2021.

An officer subsequently wrote to the person concerned to request additional information (payslips for July 2021) Following receipt of the above requested information their application was disallowed on 08 September 2021 as their weekly family income exceeded the fixed limit for their family size. (2 qualified children)

The person concerned requested a review of the Department's decision of 8 September 2021.

A review of the above decision was completed taking account of information provided by the person concerned and employment income information. A Deciding Officer found that there were no grounds to revise the original decision and upheld the decision of 8 September 2021.

The person concerned was notified of the outcome of the review on 25 January 2022 and of their right of further review and appeal to the independent Social Welfare Appeals Office.

I hope this clarifies the position for the Deputy.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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533. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the precise provisions in primary legislation which enable the introduction and extension of the households benefit package scheme; if she will provide details on the relevant ministerial announcements and ministerial orders with regard to the scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4288/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The household benefits package (HHB) comprises the electricity or gas allowance, and the free television licence. The package is generally available to people living in the State aged 66 years or over, who are in receipt of a social welfare type payment or who satisfy a means test. The package is also available to some people under the age of 66 who are in receipt of certain welfare type payments.

The HHB scheme is an administrative, non-statutory scheme and is not governed by legislation. The scheme was introduced and extended by Ministerial Announcement.

Where changes to non-statutory schemes have a cost component they are generally made in the context of the Budget and the changes announced as part of the Budget speech. A recent example of this would be the announcement in Budget 2020 of the change to the qualifying criteria of the HHB package for people under age 70 to allow for another adult to reside in the household. These Ministerial announcements at Budget time are publicly available.

Non-statutory schemes are governed by guidelines which set out the conditions of entitlement in detail. These guidelines are published on the Gov.ie website. As schemes are changed, the published guidelines are amended accordingly. Decisions in relation to applications for non-statutory schemes are made by Officers of my Department based on these published guidelines.

The HHB operational guidelines were recently amended to reflect the fact that changes are made by “Ministerial Announcement” rather than “Ministerial Order”, as this was deemed a more accurate description of the process and in line with the description provided in the guidelines of other non-statutory schemes such as the Free Travel scheme. There has been no change in how the scheme is administered.

I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.