Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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1276.To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated full year cost to increase the income limit to qualify for the fuel allowance for persons aged over 70 years to €615 per week for a single person or €1,210 per week for a couple aged over 70 years. [31677/24]

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 €382 million in 2024. 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 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 a means test and the household composition criteria. This ensures that the fuel allowance payment is targeted at 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.

Taking account of the fact that the Fuel Allowance is a household-based payment and that qualification is not just based on the means test but on a number of other qualifying criteria such as household composition, it is not possible for my Department to provide an accurate projection of the potential cost of the measure outlined by the Deputy. My Department also does not maintain records across all schemes of the amount by which unsuccessful fuel applicants are over the income threshold. It is also worth noting that many people above the existing income threshold may not make an application.

Finally, the provision of any additional supports such as increasing the allowable means for Fuel Allowance purposes could only be considered while taking account of the overall budgetary context and the availability of financial resources.

I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.