Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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1011. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of extending the fuel allowance payment to recipients of the working family payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19832/22]

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.  The purpose of this payment is to assist qualifying 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.

Fuel Allowance is a household payment and the circumstances and income of any other member of the household will be taken into account when deciding a fuel allowance application.  Accordingly, it is very difficult to provide an accurate estimate for the proposed measure.  However, it would be expected that it would cost an estimated €18.8 Million.

The Working Family Payment (WFP) is a weekly, tax-free payment available to employees with children.  It gives extra financial support to families with children with rates depending on their incomes and family size.  It is not considered a long-term Social Protection payment and recipients are in full time employment and are more likely to have additional resources.  A person in receipt of the WFP can continue to receive the payment for 52 weeks even if their income increases.

Any decision to include WFP as a qualifying payment for fuel allowance would have cost implications and could only be considered while taking account of the overall budgetary context and the availability of financial resources.

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.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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1012. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of increasing the payable period for the fuel allowance payment to 32 weeks; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19833/22]

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.  The purpose of this payment is to assist qualifying 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 estimated cost of extending the fuel allowance season to 32 weeks would be in the region of €49 million, based on current recipient household numbers.

The Government is committed to protecting vulnerable households from the impact of energy costs through a combination of supports, energy efficiency awareness initiatives and investment in programmes to improve the energy efficiency of the housing stock.

As part of the measures included in the National Energy Security Framework, a further additional lump sum payment of €100 will be paid to all households in receipt of the Fuel Allowance in the last week of the Fuel Allowance season – a payment equivalent to over 3 weeks' additional Fuel Allowance.  This payment will be provided in mid-May.

This means that low-income households will see an increase of 55% in Fuel allowance support provided during this Fuel Allowance season compared to last season.  A recipient household which would have received €735 in fuel season 2020/2021 would see an increase of €404 to €1,139 in Fuel Allowance payments in fuel season 2021/2022.  When taken in conjunction with the electricity costs emergency benefit payment, due to be paid in April, this household would have received over €600 in additional targeted Government supports over the course of this fuel season.  €600 is the equivalent of over 18 weeks' additional Fuel Allowance.

My Department also provides discretionary exceptional needs payments, where appropriate, to people who face difficulties in meeting fuel bills.  These payments are not ring-fenced or budget limited as they would be if they were drawn from an earmarked fund, but rather are demand led.

The provision of any additional supports such as extending the fuel allowance season would have cost implications and could only be considered while taking account of the overall budgetary context and the availability of financial resources.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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1014. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of increasing parent's benefit by one week; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19835/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Parent's Leave and Benefit are currently available for five weeks to all eligible parents of children born or adopted from 1 November 2019 and must be used within the first two years of the child’s life or adoption.  Parent’s Benefit is paid at €250 per week - the same rate as Maternity, Paternity and Adoptive Benefits. 

Provision was made in Budget 2022 to increase the number of weeks of Parent's Leave and Benefit available to eligible parents from five weeks to seven weeks from July 2022.

The estimated cost of the increase in Parents Benefit from five to seven weeks in 2022 is €9.4 million and the overall cost for a full year is €19.2 million.

The estimated cost of increasing parent's benefit by one further week is €9.75 million.  

The estimated costs shown are based on the estimated number of recipients in 2022.  It should be noted that these costings are subject to change in the context of emerging trends and associated revision of the estimated numbers of recipients. 

Decisions around the extension of this benefit would have to be considered in a budgetary context.  

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.