Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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322. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if a decision has been made on a child benefit application by a person (details supplied) in County Cork; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13620/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Child Benefit is a monthly payment to the parents or guardians of children under 16 years of age. Child Benefit can also be claimed for children aged 16 and 17, if they are in full-time education or full-time training or have a disability and cannot support themselves.

No application for Child Benefit has been received from the person concerned.

Child Benefit Section have attempted to contact the person concerned by phone and have been unable to do so. A CB1 application form has issued to their home address for completion. Once received a decision on entitlement will be made.

I trust this clarifies the position for the Deputy.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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323. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the payments that prevent a person under the means test threshold from receiving the fuel allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13626/22]

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. It is estimated that up to 400,000 households will benefit from the Fuel allowance in 2022 at an estimated cost of €366 million. 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 my Department in as targeted a manner as possible. To qualify for the fuel allowance payment a person must satisfy all the qualifying criteria including being in receipt of a qualifying payment, satisfy a means test and satisfy the household composition criteria. 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.

The fuel allowance guidelines which are available on the Government website at gov.ie/en/publication/e7fcaa-operational-guidelines-fuel-allowance-scheme/ set out in detail the qualifying and disregarded payment schemes for fuel allowance purposes. All other payments are non-qualifying payments and will prevent a household from receiving fuel allowance, irrespective of means.

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.