Fuel Allowance 2025/26 – End Date Confirmed.

Fuel Allowance 2025/26: End Date Confirmed as Weekly Payments Will Run to 3rd April 2026.

The end date for this winter’s Fuel Allowance season has now been confirmed, with the 2025/2026 scheme due to finish in early April.

The Fuel Allowance season for 2025/26 began on Monday, 22 September 2025 and is paid for 28 weeks, bringing the final week of payments to Friday, 3 April 2026.

Rate and key dates:

• The Department of Social Protection confirms the current weekly rate is €38, payable from week commencing 29 December 2025 until 3 April 2026.
• Budget 2026 provided for a €5 increase in Fuel Allowance (from €33 to €38) from January 2026.

Budget 2026 changes: who benefits.
A number of measures affecting Fuel Allowance were announced as part of Budget 2026, including:

A Warm Coal Fire.

• Working Family Payment (WFP) now qualifies for Fuel Allowance (subject to the qualifying conditions). Eligible WFP recipients will be paid in March/April 2026, and the payment will be backdated to January 2026 to include arrears.
• The Department also confirms WFP customers do not need to apply in order to receive this Fuel Allowance payment, where no one else in the household is already getting it.
• From September 2026, people moving from Disability Allowance or Blind Pension into work will be able to keep Fuel Allowance for five years (subject to the scheme rules).

Who can get Fuel Allowance.
Fuel Allowance is designed to help with home-heating costs during the winter months. You may qualify if you:

1. Are aged 66 or over (you do not need to be on a qualifying payment, but you must pass a means test),
2. Are under 66 and getting a qualifying long-term social welfare payment, and you also pass a means test,
3. Are living alone or only with certain people (see below).

Important: Fuel Allowance is not paid where a person’s heating needs are provided for in full as part of their accommodation.

Living arrangements that can still qualify:

• You may qualify if you live alone, or only with certain people, including:
• A person aged 66 or over
• A dependent adult or dependent child
• Someone on a qualifying payment (but only one Fuel Allowance is paid per household)
• A person getting Carer’s Benefit who is caring for you (or your dependent adult/child)
• A person on short-term Jobseeker’s Allowance or Basic Supplementary Welfare Allowance

Qualifying payments (examples).
The Department’s list of qualifying payments includes, among others:

1. State Pension (Contributory / Non-Contributory).
2. Working Family Payment (WFP).
3. Disability Allowance, Blind Pension, Invalidity Pension.
4. One-Parent Family Payment, Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment.
5. Carer’s Allowance.
6. Farm Assist.
7. Bereaved Partner’s Pension (Contributory / Non-Contributory).
8. Certain EU/bilateral social security payments where there is an Irish equivalent.

Payment options and applications.
Fuel Allowance is normally paid weekly during the season. Some customers can opt to receive it in two instalments instead (one at the start of the season and a second in January), subject to the scheme rules.