Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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549. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will consider awarding the fuel allowance on a sliding scale rate in order that applicants who are marginally over the guidelines, particularly those who are elderly or in ill health, could qualify for even a partial payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9855/22]

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 each year) from October to April, at an estimated cost of €366 million in 2022. It is estimated that up to 400,000 households will benefit in 2022. 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 criteria for Fuel Allowance are framed in order to direct the limited resources available to the Department in as targeted a manner as possible. This ensures that the Fuel Allowance payment goes to those who are more vulnerable to fuel poverty including those reliant on social protection payments for longer periods and who are unlikely to have additional resources of their own.

In Budget 2022 the Government increased the weekly means threshold for the fuel allowance scheme by €20 to €120 above the appropriate rate of contributory State pension representing a 20% increase in the threshold which enables more people to qualify for this support.

Any decision to introduce a system of tapered fuel rates for cases that have means greater than the allowed €120 would have cost implications for the scheme and could only be considered in the context of overall budgetary negotiations. The €120 a week means limit is significantly higher than the weekly fuel allowance rate of €33 and also the combined weekly total of household benefits and fuel allowance added together (€41.05). It should be recalled that many of those aged over 66 are solely dependent upon the State pension, and so a person who has additional pension income above €120, is not among the more disadvantaged people that Fuel Allowance is targeted towards.

Under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme, my Department also provides Exceptional Needs Payments, which 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.