Anger at the Fuel Scheme Form
Recently I took it upon myself to write to the Department of Social and Family Affairs in relation to the form used by hundreds of elderly people in the county to apply for the fuel allowance. What I found was that its complicated format would take the efforts of a Nobel Prize winner to fill in and that it threatens people with a visit by an inspector, which can frighten elderly people away from applying for the allowance.
I take issue with the section of the form that states: “A Social Welfare inspector may call on you to examine your application and may ask to see documents about your household means.”
The National Fuel Scheme is a scheme that is intended to help households in in Mayo who are dependant on long-term social welfare or Health Service Executive (HSE) payments and who are unable to provide for their own heating needs. I am finding that the form, which is four pages long, confuses elderly people and that they are frightened by the threat of an inspector calling to their homes.
This is unfair and unacceptable in the context of the hugh jump in oil, electricity and gas prices our the last few months. If the government was serious about the needs of the elderly it would increase the thresholds that remain ridiculously low, it would make it simpler to apply and it would remove the appalling threat of an inspection of household documents.
Older people in this count have been paying their taxes for years and now when they need some respect and dignity shown them they are hounded by the Department using a form that would take over an hour to fill. This is not social welfare, this is an illusion of welfare as it tries to frighten people away from their rightful entitlements.
Recently I took it upon myself to write to the Department of Social and Family Affairs in relation to the form used by hundreds of elderly people in the county to apply for the fuel allowance. What I found was that its complicated format would take the efforts of a Nobel Prize winner to fill in and that it threatens people with a visit by an inspector, which can frighten elderly people away from applying for the allowance.
I take issue with the section of the form that states: “A Social Welfare inspector may call on you to examine your application and may ask to see documents about your household means.”
The National Fuel Scheme is a scheme that is intended to help households in in Mayo who are dependant on long-term social welfare or Health Service Executive (HSE) payments and who are unable to provide for their own heating needs. I am finding that the form, which is four pages long, confuses elderly people and that they are frightened by the threat of an inspector calling to their homes.
This is unfair and unacceptable in the context of the hugh jump in oil, electricity and gas prices our the last few months. If the government was serious about the needs of the elderly it would increase the thresholds that remain ridiculously low, it would make it simpler to apply and it would remove the appalling threat of an inspection of household documents.
Older people in this count have been paying their taxes for years and now when they need some respect and dignity shown them they are hounded by the Department using a form that would take over an hour to fill. This is not social welfare, this is an illusion of welfare as it tries to frighten people away from their rightful entitlements.
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