Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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226. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he will consider allowing partial capacity payment as a qualifying payment for fuel allowance (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55742/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Partial Capacity Benefit allows a person who is in receipt of Illness Benefit for 26 weeks, or Invalidity Pension to enter or return to employment or self-employment and to continue to receive a partial or full payment.

The personal rate of payment of Partial Capacity Benefit is based on a medical assessment of a person’s restriction regarding their capacity for work, whether the person was in receipt of Illness Benefit or Invalidity Pension. After the medical assessment, if a person's disability is rated as moderate, severe or profound their previous payment continues at 50%, 75% or 100% respectively.

The duration that a person can be in receipt of Partial Capacity Benefit is linked to the payment they moved from. For someone moving from Illness Benefit, the maximum duration is as long as the recipient has an underlying entitlement to payment of Illness Benefit. In the case of Invalidity Pension, a maximum duration of 156 weeks applies.

Partial Capacity Benefit has been designed so there are no restrictions or limits on earnings from employment or on the number of hours a person can work.

The criteria for Fuel Allowance are framed to direct the limited resources available to the Department in as targeted a manner as possible, and so it is focused on long term payments where an applicant satisfies a means test.

As persons in receipt of Partial Capacity Benefit continue to receive some or all of their income support payment while working, without any restriction or limits on earnings, or on the number of hours they can work, they are not eligible for Fuel Allowance.

My Department 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.

While the Department continues to keep the range of supports available under review, any decision to change the qualifying criteria for the Fuel Allowance payment would have budgetary consequences and would have to be considered in a wider budgetary context.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.