![\"Communities](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_01KPBAH8Y1YDEVXHXD07CRSZX1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMinisters say only one voucher will be available per household and will be for oil customers “at this time”<\/p>\n
Communities Minister Gordon Lyons speaking during a press conference at Stormont following an Executive meeting(Image: Liam McBurney\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n
A \u00a336.4million support package has been announced for home heating oil users in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
The Northern Ireland Executive<\/a> has agreed to fund an additional \u00a319.2 million to go towards helping low-income households with rising fuel costs<\/a>, on top of \u00a317.2m of support from the UK Government <\/a>which was announced last month.<\/p>\n The decision was agreed during a lengthy Executive meeting on Thursday. The scheme will mean 300,000 low-income families will receive \u00a3100 fuel vouchers.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Everything you need to know about \u00a3100 heating oil vouchers<\/a>READ MORE: Northern Ireland drivers cutting back on food and heating to keep cars running<\/a><\/p>\n Eligible households will be able to apply for the \u00a3100 prepaid card that can be used at heating oil suppliers. Approximately 500,000 homes in Northern Ireland<\/a> rely on oil as a primary heating source.<\/p>\n Ministers say only one voucher will be available per household and will be for oil customers \u201cat this time\u201d.<\/p>\n Eligible groups identified as most vulnerable to increased heating oil costs include:<\/p>\n Households in receipt of income-related means tested benefits, namely Pension Credit, Universal Credit and Income Related Employment and Support Allowance;Households in receipt of Disability benefits;Pensioner households not in receipt of Pension Credit with income below \u00a330,000; andHouseholds on incomes below \u00a330,000 and not in receipt of income related benefits.<\/p>\n Communities Minister <\/a>Gordon Lyons said: \u201cWith roughly two thirds of homes in Northern Ireland relying on oil heating, recent price increases of nearly 100% in just a few weeks have been especially punishing here.<\/p>\n \u201cThis measure will deliver targeted support to more than 300,000 households to help hard-pressed working families and vulnerable people struggling to meet essential heating oil costs.\u201d<\/p>\n Minister Lyons added: \u201cMy officials will work at pace to open the scheme and I will announce further details as soon as possible.<\/p>\n \u201cWith 24% of households already living in fuel poverty before the recent surge in oil prices, it is clear that the situation has only deteriorated.<\/p>\n \u201cMy ambition is to deliver lasting, meaningful support. Alongside this new measure, I will reform my Department\u2019s Discretionary Support Scheme to ensure grant assistance is available to those in need, regardless of the type of home heating they rely on.<\/p>\n \u201cIn parallel, I am actively progressing work on a Warm Healthy Homes Fund to help make fuel poverty and cold, damp homes a thing of the past.\u201d<\/p>\n For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here<\/a> and sign up to our daily newsletter<\/a> here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ministers say only one voucher will be available per household and will be for oil customers “at this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1506,7619,188,6902,24,7621,3930,14,7620,5,1261,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-16198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-cost-of-living","9":"tag-department-for-communities","10":"tag-energy-prices","11":"tag-fuel-protests","12":"tag-iran","13":"tag-northern-ireland-executive","14":"tag-northern-ireland","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-stormont","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-uk-government","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116420821769589821","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}