Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Back to Work Enterprise Allowance scheme offers support for people who are long-term unemployed and who are interested in self-employment as a route to entering the labour market. The scheme plays a vital role in supporting the development of new enterprises.

The Back to Work Enterprise Allowance scheme supports people in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payment to develop a business while allowing them to retain a reducing proportion of their payment over two years with no restriction on the number of hours worked. A person retains 100% of their payment in year 1 and 75% in year 2.

The Short-Term Enterprise Allowance scheme provides support to recipients of Jobseeker’s Benefit and Jobseeker’s Benefit Self-Employed who wish to start up a new business. The allowance is payable for the duration of the participant's Jobseekers Benefit/Jobseekers Benefit Self-Employed claim.

Statistics are maintained on the number of applications awarded under the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance scheme over the period. They are not maintained on the total number of applications received.

Payment of this social welfare allowance for up to 2 years during the initial business start-up period is a valuable support and assists to alleviate the risks involved with starting a business. The scheme provides an element of financial security along with business mentoring and supports. There are no plans to provide an extension to the duration of the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance scheme.

The following tabular statement provides the number of persons in receipt of the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance and Short-Term Enterprise Allowance at end December 2021 and end October 2022.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Tabular Statement

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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137. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of times that the fuel allowance has increased since she took office. [58969/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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On 27 June 2020, I had the privilege of being appointed as Minister for Social Protection. At that time, the rate of Fuel Allowance was €24.50 per week, payable over a 28 week period.

From 4 January 2021, I increased the weekly rate by €3.50, raising the rate of payment to €28.00 per week.

I secured a further increase of €5 to the weekly rate of Fuel Allowance with effect from 11 October 2021, from €28 to €33.00, which is the current rate.

In addition, during my time as Minister for Social Protection, and in recognition of the increasing energy costs for households, I secured a number of one-off payments for those in receipt of Fuel Allowance. In March 2022, an extra €125 was paid to all Fuel Allowance recipients. A further extra payment of €100 was made to all Fuel Allowance recipients in mid-May 2022.

More recently, a payment of €400 was made to all those in receipt of Fuel Allowance during the week commencing 14 November 2022.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.