{"id":898878,"date":"2026-04-16T22:18:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T22:18:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/898878\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T22:18:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T22:18:38","slug":"northern-ireland-executive-agrees-additional-19-2m-to-help-with-fuel-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/898878\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland Executive agrees additional \u00a319.2m to help with fuel costs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Northern Ireland\u2019s Executive has agreed to fund an additional \u00a319.2 million to go towards helping low-income households with rising fuel costs.<\/p>\n

The decision was agreed during a lengthy meeting on Thursday, and comes on top of the \u00a317.2 million of support from the UK Government which was announced last month.<\/p>\n

The scheme will mean 300,000 low-income families will receive \u00a3100 fuel vouchers.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said: \u201cIt will make a difference, but it will not solve the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

She and First Minister Michelle O\u2019Neill called on Sir Keir Starmer to meet with the Executive.<\/p>\n

Ms Little-Pengelly said: \u201cOur message to the Prime Minister is simple, this cannot wait, people cannot wait.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need a comprehensive package of support, and we need it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new measures will mean eligible households will be able to apply for a \u00a3100 prepaid card that can be used at home heating oil suppliers.<\/p>\n

Announcing details of how the scheme will work, Communities Minister Gordon Lyons said it will be open to those receiving \u201can income-based benefit, a disability benefit or state pension\u201d or with an income under \u00a330,000.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

He said the income threshold is based on the national minimum wage, \u201caligns with that of my department\u2019s discretionary support scheme\u201d and \u201crepresents a fair assessment of where the available funding can be directed\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pensioners will be eligible to apply if they are not in receipt of Pension Credit or if they have an income above 30,000.<\/p>\n

Only one voucher will be available per household and will be for oil customers \u201cat this time\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Lyons said roughly two-thirds of households, around 500,000 homes, in Northern Ireland rely on heating oil and recent price increases of \u201cnearly 100%\u201d have been \u201cpunishing\u201d.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged there has been criticism of \u201chow long it has taken for us to progress this\u201d adding \u201cit was important that we brought forward something that would actually help, that was of sufficient scale, that would actually provide help to those who need it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Lyons said he wanted to \u201cmanage expectations\u201d and said it would \u201ctake time to implement\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe need to make sure that we have the legislation in place, that we have the mechanism of delivery in place, and that we ensure that the eligibility checks are able to be carried out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Little-Pengelly said the Executive \u201cwill have more to say in the coming weeks in terms of discounts to electricity customers, because obviously our Economy Minister has been working on that for some time\u201d.<\/p>\n

She also said the Infrastructure Minister spoke about \u201cfreezing transport fares\u201d on Wednesday, adding: \u201cThat\u2019s ultimately about giving people choice, because if you can\u2019t put fuel in your car, you may choose to take public transport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked where the money for the scheme will be coming from, Mr Lyons said: \u201cThis is an Executive agreement, so the Executive will find the funding for that in line with the other pressures that we faced.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the decision that was taken today.\u201d<\/p>\n

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ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland\u2019s Executive has agreed to fund an additional \u00a319.2 million to go towards helping low-income households with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[487,922,35,6643,119884,253396,53309,42497,238442,1434,1144,520,16,15],"class_list":["post-898878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-cost-of-living","tag-emma-little-pengelly","tag-energy","tag-energy-prices","tag-fuel-poverty","tag-fuel-voucher","tag-fuel-prices","tag-gordon-lyons","tag-heating-oil","tag-michelle-oneill","tag-northern-ireland","tag-sir-keir-starmer","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116416709872810930","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}