Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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140. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the proposals there are to improve the criteria for the free fuel allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34870/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Fuel Allowance is a payment of €33 per week for 28 weeks - a total of €924 each year - from late September to April, which is supporting over 370,000 households in 2022, at an estimated cost of €366 million. The purpose of this payment is to assist these households with their energy costs.

As part of the overall welfare budget package of €600m in increases secured for 2022, I was pleased to be able to increase the Fuel Allowance payment by €5 per week effective from Budget week. I also increased the weekly income threshold for Fuel Allowance by €20. This brought the threshold to €120 above the appropriate rate of State Pension Contributory, enabling more people to qualify for this support.

Furthermore, with effect from the start of the next fuel season, the qualifying period for Jobseeker’s and Supplementary Welfare Allowance recipients to access the Fuel Allowance payment will be reduced from 15 to 12 months.

The Government has, therefore, implemented significant expansions in relation to the Fuel Allowance through Budget 2022.

Under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme, Additional 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.

While the Department's schemes are reviewed on an ongoing basis, any further expansions to the Fuel Allowance scheme 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.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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141. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the serious implications that means testing and eligibility requirements for the carer’s allowance have on family carers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38136/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department provides a range of income supports for full-time carers including Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and the Carer’s Support Grant. Combined spending on all these payments to carers in 2022 is estimated to exceed €1.5 billion.

Carer’s Allowance is the primary income support through which the Department supports carers in the community. Carer’s Allowance is a payment to people on low incomes who are caring full-time for a person who needs support because of age, disability or illness, including mental illness. The two principal conditions for receipt of Carer’s Allowance are that full time care and attention is required and being provided, and that the means test which applies is satisfied.

The conditions attached to payment of Carer’s Allowance are consistent with the overall conditions that apply to social assistance payments generally. This system of social assistance supports provides payments based on an income need with the means test playing the critical role in determining whether or not an income need arises as a consequence of a particular contingency, be that illness, disability, unemployment or caring.

In responding to the carer organisations and the voices of family carers, significant changes were made to the Carer’s Allowance means test as part of Budget 2022. These were the first changes to the means test in 14 years.

- The capital and savings disregard for the Carer’s Allowance means assessment was increased from €20,000 to €50,000, aligning it with that which applies for Disability Allowance.

- For carer’s who work, the weekly income disregard was increased from €332.50 to €350 for a single person, and from €665 to €750 for carers with a spouse/partner.

The changes came into effect on 2 June and many Carers who up to now did not qualify for a payment due to means will now be brought into the Carers Allowance system for the first time.

Any additional changes to the Carers means test would have to be considered in an overall policy and Budgetary context.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.