Do you or someone you know receive the fuel allowance? What you might not know is that recipients can also be eligible for up to €30,000 of Government-funded home retrofit works too.
The fully-funded energy upgrade scheme from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) aims to improve the energy-efficiency and warmth of homes owned by those at risk of energy poverty.
The free upgrade works are available to recipients of certain welfare payments who live in their own home, provided it was built and occupied before 2006. It doesn’t have to have been occupied by you since then, just occupied. Among those eligible are those receiving the fuel allowance.
With entitlement to the fuel allowance expanding in Budget 2025, it’s worth checking if you or a loved one now qualifies. About 9,200 additional households will become eligible for the fuel allowance from January, according to Department of Social Protection estimates.
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Some 4,000 of those are Carer’s Allowance recipients. These households already qualified for the retrofit scheme. The expansion of the fuel allowance for older people, however, means 5,200 new households will become eligible for the free retrofit works.
The higher over-70s fuel allowance means test disregard is being extended to people aged 66 and over, as part of Heather Humphries’ Budget 2025 social protection package. Fuel Allowance is a means-tested payment. If you already get a means-tested payment, you have already satisfied the means test and it does not need to be done again.
And if you now qualify for the fuel allowance, it is worth applying for the Fully Funded Energy Upgrade Scheme straight away.
Others who remain eligible for the scheme include recipients of the Working Family payment, One Parent Family payment, Domiciliary Care Allowance, Carer’s Allowance and Disability Allowance, where it’s received for over six months and there is a child under age seven. Recipients of the Job Seeker’s allowance for more than six months with a child under seven are eligible too.
Energy Upgrade
So what do you get? Free attic, cavity wall, external and internal wall insulation and draught proofing, energy efficient lighting and a lagging jacket. Depending on an assessment of your home, the Fully Funded Energy Upgrade scheme can provide thousands of euro in upgrades. The average spend on a qualifying home this year has been €26,602.
Sometimes, brand new heating systems and windows are installed under the scheme too.
Householders will get a warmer home, lower energy bills and a more valuable property. With such upgrades normally costing tens of thousands of euro, even with grants, this type of retrofit would be otherwise out of reach for these households.
Some 5,255 households have benefited from the free energy upgrade scheme so far this year, says the Department of the Environment and Climate.
Older people who live in their own home and are in receipt of the fuel allowance are typical beneficiaries of the scheme.
Recipients of the Domiciliary Care Allowance have also benefited. This is a non-means-tested payment for those caring for a child under the age of 16 who has additional needs. It is not based on a particular type of disability, but rather the level of physical or mental impairment which results in the child needing “substantially more care and attention than another child of the same age”, according to the criteria.
One householder in receipt of the allowance for an autistic child had their house retrofitted, having been on the waiting list for less than two years. Works included installing attic insulation, a mixture of internal and external wall insulation, room vents and free energy-efficient light bulbs. The estimated cost of those retrofit works was €30,000.
Paying for the work themselves would not have been possible as caring for their child means working reduced hours. Their home’s Ber rating increased from a D2 to a C1. Installing heat controls would bump the rating up to a B3, qualifying them to switch to a lower rate green mortgage.
Application process
There were 20,305 households on the waiting list for the scheme as of September. The average time for a home to be completed is between 17 and 20 months from the time of application. If you apply now, it will probably mean another winter or two until your house is a whole lot warmer and more energy efficient but at least you will be in the queue. Homes built before 1993 and those that have a pre-works Ber of E, F or G are prioritised.
You can apply for the scheme on the SEAI’s website. If you qualify, an SEAI surveyor will visit your home and recommend upgrades based on its age, size and your existing heating system.
In a budget criticised for short termism, this scheme goes against the grain. For good reason. Longer-term measures like retrofitting make more sense than subsidising our energy usage through energy bill credits. Subsidising the energy use of draughty houses is like pouring water into a leaking bucket.
You can contact us at OnTheMoney@irishtimes.com with personal finance questions you would like to see us address. If you missed last week’s newsletter, you can read it here.
