Written answers
Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Social Welfare Eligibility
Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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851. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to review correspondence (details supplied); if she has any plans review the assessment when it comes to fuel allowance based on this correspondence; and if she will respond to the issues raised in same. [46519/24]
Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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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. The means test 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.
A person can have income of up to €524 per week, or €1,048 per week for a couple, and still qualify for Fuel Allowance. The increased allowable means threshold for people who are married, cohabiting or in a civil partnership, acknowledges that the overall cost of living for this cohort is higher than for a single person.
In Budget 2025 the Government did provide for a €12 weekly increase to all of the main social welfare payments; an October cost of living bonus; a Christmas bonus in December; and a €200 once-off payment for pensioners and people with a disability receiving the Living Alone Increase, in November 2024.
Finally, the Department of Social Protection provides Additional Needs Payments as part of the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme to help meet essential expenses that a person cannot pay from their weekly income. Payments are made at the discretion of the officers administering the scheme, taking into account the requirements of the legislation, and all the relevant circumstances of the case in order to ensure that the payments target those most in need of assistance.
I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
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