John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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469. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if two individuals that cohabitate with a combined income below the threshold for a dual application to the fuel allowance are entitled to claim the full amount; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8288/23]

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, at an estimated cost of €412 million in 2023. The purpose of this payment is to assist these households with their energy costs. Only one allowance is paid per household.

The criteria for fuel allowance are framed in order to direct the limited resources available to the Department in as targeted a manner as possible. To qualify for the Fuel Allowance, an applicant must be in receipt of a qualifying payment (if aged under 70), satisfy a means test and satisfy the household composition test. 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.

An applicant will only benefit from the allowable means for a couple if they are living with a spouse, civil partner or cohabitant.

The term ‘cohabitants’ refers to couples who are living together as defined in the social welfare code in accordance with Section 172 (1) of the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act, 2010, which states that “a cohabitant is one of two adults (whether of the same or the opposite sex) who live together as a couple in an intimate and committed relationship and who are not related to each other within the prohibited degrees of relationship or married to each other or civil partners of each other”.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.