Fuel Allowance - unfair allowance which favors the long term unemployed?

firemansam4

I want to put this Thread out there too highlight and get opinion on what I think is an unfair allowance that benefits those who are on social welfare the longest.

Now don't get me wrong i'm not giving out about people receiving this allowance and I do understand that in the winter time costs do mount with added fuel bills. But what i'm unhappy about is the conditions you have to meet to receive this payment when on job seekers allowance.

It seems to me that it benefits those who are unemployed the longest and can almost act like a deterant for people to even try and get work.

If you are unfortunate to lose your job you will most likely have to go onto Job seekers benefit (non means tested allowance) first of which, and you will not be entitled to the allowance at all.
Then when you are switched to Job seekers allowance you have to be unemployed 15 months before you can receive this allowance even though you could be as hard up as someone who has been receiving the payment for a long time.

Now if you wish to try and better yourself in that period and take up education and go on back to education then the whole time you are on that does not count towards the 15 months you need to be unemployed to receive this allowance, so in essence you are being punished for taking up education.
Or if you get offered work but it only lasts for lets say 6 months then when you get let go and have to claim again you have to start from scratch, again this is like you being punished because you wanted to take what work you could get.

This allowance lasts 6 months of the year and is a substantial amount of 20 euros extra a week, and to me it stinks to high heavens that the system almost seems to reward those who stay unemployed for the longest. (I understand that its not a choice for everyone but for a few it is)

All opinions welcome to this thread....

goose2005

It does seem over-generous - the equivalent in the UK is £100-300 per annum. Do people really need fuel supplements in October and March?

woodoo

It is a bit silly. Do people on the dole less that the designated time have more money or not feel the cold as much?

mathepac

firemansam4 wrote: »

... This allowance lasts 6 months of the year and is a substantial amount of 20 euros extra a week, ....

20 weeks @ €20 / week. It was changed from 26 weeks in the last budget. It averages out at an extra €10 / week over a full year.

murphaph

Welfare in Ireland is arseways. You should get the maximum support immediately after losing your job and it should taper off over time thereafter towards a subsistence level.

firemansam4

mathepac wrote: »

20 weeks @ €20 / week. It was changed from 26 weeks in the last budget. It averages out at an extra €10 / week over a full year.

Yes i suppose if you took it over the whole year it would equate to 10 euros a week, but i would still say that's substantial, considering there is such a fuss about paying the household charge at the moment which equates to 2 euros a week.

This allowance would pay the household charge 5 times over!

johnnyskeleton

Much of the social welfare system seems to me like double counting.

Bythat I mean we have a very high basic rate because the cost of living (ie food, rent, energy, clothes, transport, health, education etc) is so high here relative to other countries. That's fair enough.

But then we also have suppliments for energy/fuel, rent, clothes, free transport and medical cards, back to school payments, emergency payments, free phone and Internet etc.

So if I accept that social welfare should be more expensive here than elsewhere, we should have either a high basic rate or a low basic rate plus all the extras.

The fact, as you say, that basic rates stay the same while the extras increase the longer you are unemployed compounds this problem.

These systems were put in place when the government had too much money in it's hands and the numbers on welfare were relatively small. Now, with 2/3rds of the income and 4 times the welfare recipients, the government has to look at the system realistically and, instead of takig the cut €5 here, reduce eligibility for an allowance approach that they have been doing, they should reassess welfare on objective criteria.

Withthat in mind, they should wither cut the basic down and give the extras to everyone, or else cutthe extras on the basis that they have already been factored into the basic.

rasper

Once you hit 15 months unemployment you should be singled for for extra attention , not get an increase for length of service , every once of effort should be made to ensure you not becoming unemployable not rewarding you for 15 months that you don't want to restart cos you'll loose your rank