merrion street

As confirmed by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government today (Tuesday, 6th May 2014), the Government has made a number of decisions in relation to water charges, free allowances and affordability measures.

These include that the average domestic water charge will not exceed €240 per year, that there will be no standing charge for domestic customers for social and environmental reasons, and that households, in addition to receiving an annual free allowance of 30,000 litres of water (and a corresponding allowance for waste water) per year, will receive an additional free allowance for every child under 18 to cover a child’s normal consumption of water supplied and waste water treated.

In addition to the above, the Government has agreed, on foot of a recommendation by the Minister for Social Protection, to put in place additional affordability measures to assist pensioners, persons with disabilities, and carers who receive the Household Benefits Package. Approximately 413,000 people are in receipt of the Household Benefits Package.

The Household Benefits Package, which currently provides assistance with electricity/gas bills as well as covering in full the cost of the Television Licence for recipients, will now be extended to assist with water costs. The value of this additional benefit will be approximately €100 a year to each recipient, beginning in 2015 at an estimated cost of €42 million per annum. The precise manner in which the additional benefit will be delivered will be determined in the coming weeks.

Full detail on qualifying criteria for the Household Benefits Package is available here: http://www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/Household-Benefits.aspx.

In addition, the exceptional needs payment system – through which a single payment can be provided to help meet essential, once-off, exceptional expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income – will continue to be available to people experiencing severe financial difficulties.