Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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238. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection is she will clarify the eligibility for the fuel allowance of applicants who cohabit with someone with whom they are not in a relationship. [48927/22]

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. The allowance represents a contribution towards the energy costs of a household. 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 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.

To satisfy the household composition criteria, an applicant who lives with someone other than a qualified spouse / civil partner / cohabitant or qualified child(ren) must only live with:-

- a person in receipt of a qualifying payment who would be entitled to theallowance in their own right or

- a person who is in receipt of carer’s allowance or carer’s benefit in respect of providing full-time care and attention to the fuel allowance applicant or their qualified spouse / civil partner / cohabitant or qualified child(ren) or

- a person receiving short-term jobseeker's allowance (JA) or basic Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) - i.e., less than 312 days for JA and less than 12 months/364 days for SWA).

If an Employment Support Scheme (ESS) participant has no entitlement to Fuel Allowance in their own right but was in receipt of Pandemic Unemployment Payment, short-term Jobseeker’s Allowance or BASI Supplementary Welfare Allowance immediately prior to commencing the ESS, this does not prevent a household from qualifying for Fuel Allowance.

Fuel Allowance is not payable if an applicant lives with any person, including a family member that is not covered by the criteria outlined.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.