2026-06-18

12. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Social Protection to confirm whether an examination of improvements to key ancillary benefits such as the fuel allowance, household benefits package and living alone allowance to support older and vulnerable groups has occurred as per the programme for Government; if not, when this examination will occur; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46276/26]

The programme for Government contains a commitment to protect core welfare rates while ensuring that available resources are targeted at vulnerable groups. It also includes a commitment to examine key ancillary benefits, including the fuel allowance, household benefits package and living alone allowance to support vulnerable groups. This is an ongoing activity as part of the Department's budget planning each year. As part of budget 2026, I increased the weekly rate of fuel allowance by €5 which increased the weekly rate payable by 15% from €33 to €38 a week or €1,064 per fuel season. In addition, in March I extended the 2026-27 fuel allowance season by four weeks, which added an extra €152 to households in most need of support and increased the fuel season amount to €1,216 for this year. Estimated expenditure on the scheme in 2026 is €557.4 million. The household benefits package comprises the electricity or gas allowance and the free television licence, with an annual payment of €580 per recipient. The Department will invest approximately €317 million this year in this package. The living alone allowance is a supplement to a primary social protection payment of €22 per week, €1,144 a year, made to people aged 66 or over in receipt of certain social welfare payments and who are living alone. The estimated cost of the living alone allowance this year is €298 million. In budget 2026, we extended the fuel allowance to all recipients of the working family payment. This benefits some 50,000 families. In addition, from September, those moving from disability allowance or blind pension to take up employment will continue to receive their fuel allowance for five years after exiting their payment. These improvements, which are targeted, have resulted in many more households qualifying for the payment and have resulted in the budget for the scheme increasing to an estimated €557.4 million in 2026 compared with €290.4 million in 2020. I will continue, as part of the budget planning process, to examine improvements to key ancillary benefits.

I very much welcome that over €28.9 billion is being provided in range of areas via budget 2026. There is a concern, however - and this was outlined this morning on "Morning Ireland" - that we may soon have an inflation rate of 5%. That is on the upper end of the scale. Because the cost of fuel and hearing are both increasing, we need to take action to keep pace with that in order to ensure that we have adequate supports for people who are vulnerable and who are very much dependent on the social welfare system. It is in this context that I am asking about whether the review has occurred and what we need to do in the context of planning forward, especially for budget 2027.

Absolutely. We will be looking at those targeted supports. This year, we have increased the fuel allowance rate by €5 per week and extended the season by four weeks. Most importantly, we sponsored the working family payment in order that those on low incomes can access the fuel allowance payment. We ensured that we backdated this to 1 January. That is the kind of area I want to look at in the context of targeting payments to support those under the most pressure and, in particular, to support, as we have discussed at considerable length this morning, those in receipt of the living alone allowance. Anomalies in this regard have been highlighted by Deputies Burke, McAuliffe and O'Reilly. We want to look at those. There are a lot of areas in which we can iron out difficulties. As Deputy Hayes stated earlier, the living alone allowance and the fuel allowance affect people in different ways. We have to make sure that we try to ensure consistency. That will be part of our overall budgetary process, but that is done within a very tight financial window in view of the other challenges the Department faces.

I fully understand that. As was stated earlier, I have a number of people who are living in rural areas - the position would be the same in the Minister's constituency - in circumstances where there are two old-age pensions coming into the household. If one of the parties dies, there is a sudden drop in income. However, the cost of heating and travel for those individuals remain substantial. This is a huge challenge, especially for people in rural areas. The matter needs to be looked at very carefully. I fully understand that there will be many demands in healthcare and other areas in the context of the forthcoming budget, but this is something we need to keep pace with in order to ensure that people who are in receipt of social welfare supports do not lose out because of the inflation that is either going to occur or that has occurred over the past 12 months.

The incidences the Deputy cites relate to an area I am very focused on and concerned about, namely where a person loses their partner and then faces a massive and sudden drop in income while the bills remain the same. We will be looking at all of our schemes in that context. This year, we have taken action to increase the fuel allowance and expand the scheme. On foot of the war in Iran, we expanded the season by four weeks. That is a very targeted payment. I do not know if the Deputy was here earlier for the discussion on how we target that and how we can ensure that it is targeted more by allowing people the choice to spend the money on whatever energy source they want. The position with the living alone allowance is similar. There has been an increase since 2019, and an increase in the overall budget, which is substantial, but still not enough people are getting access to it and too many are left facing a cliff edge and a financial challenge at a time of huge personal loss and grief. We need to do something in that regard, because this is not the right way to have it.