Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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413. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the way she plans to address the increasing number of people who lose out on eligibility for the fuel allowance due to a member of their family moving home due to the housing crisis; the number of households have lost eligibility due to a family member moving in; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41479/24]

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 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.

An unqualified family member who is living with a fuel allowance applicant may result in a reduction of additional allowances, such as the Fuel Allowance payment, to the householder.

My Department does not hold a record of the number of households who have lost eligibility to Fuel Allowance due to a family member moving home and therefore, I cannot provide this information to the Deputy.

A change in the qualifying criteria such as disregarding an additional household member in the circumstances outlined by the Deputy, would have to be considered in a wider budgetary context. However, disregarding a family member who is not reliant on long term social protection payments and who is in employment would change the targeted nature of the scheme.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.