Thousands of women in receipt of the Deserted Wives Allowance are being excluded from the SEAI Warmer Homes Scheme in what has been described as inexplicably discriminatory.
Local Aontú representative Michael O’Dowd said he was baffled by confirmation from the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment, Darragh O’Brien, that the payment does not qualify under the scheme. The response followed a parliamentary question submitted by Aontú party leader.
O’Dowd said the exclusion of Deserted Wives Allowance recipients from the scheme was “inexplicable , inequitable and lacking in common sense”.
There are almost 4,500 women in Ireland currently in receipt of this payment. These women are being deserted by this Government’
Deserted Wife’s payment was effectively closed to new applicants in 1997, meaning many recipients are now older and more vulnerable than their One-Parent Family Payment counterparts. This makes their exclusion from the scheme particularly concerning. As a result, many are significantly worse off than those on the One-Parent Family Payment, despite having comparable means and the same need to maintain a single-adult household. While one group can access vital home retrofit supports, the other cannot.
For many women, the Warmer Homes Scheme provides the sole practical means to enhance their homes, increase energy efficiency, and alleviate fuel poverty. However, the existing eligibility criteria result in an inequitable scenario, whereby two social welfare recipients in comparable situations may receive different treatment.
It’s just yet another example of the baffling inequities that the most impoverished must contend with and I am calling for this to be remedied .It is not fair and it flies in the face of all this Government proclaims about fairness for all”.
The SEAI Warmer Homes Scheme is designed to support low income households by improving energy efficiency and reducing fuel poverty, with eligibility currently based on specific qualifying social welfare payments.
