A hardship fund to help people struggling to pay their home heating bills may never happen, a Derry City and Strabane District councillor has said.
The scheme will see one-off payments paid directly to people’s providers.
But it has been beset by delays over issues sourcing a fuel payment partner.
“If we don’t appoint a fuel payment partner the budget that we have, which is about £250,000 to help about 2,500 households, it’s not going to happen,” councillor Rory Farrell has said.
Speaking to BBC Radio Foyle on Wednesday, councillor Farrell has said “there is agreement across the parties and individuals within council that it needs to happen”.
The SDLP councillor, who sits on the council’s working group, said the scheme “all hinges on the appointment of a fuel payment partner”.
The fuel payment partner will, in conjunction with the local council, help run and deliver the hardship scheme.
People Before Profit councillor Shaun Harkin apologised for delays in rolling the scheme out.
“We were working with a fuel payment partner, but unfortunately after working with them for a couple of weeks it turned out they weren’t able to administer the payment,” councillor Harkin said.
“It is going to go out to tender again.”
Councillor Harkin said he hoped the scheme would be able to move forward “as soon as possible.”
The council set aside £258,000 to administer what is known as the Discretionary Emergency Fuel Support Programme for people needing emergency fuel support in the council district.
It will see one-off £100 payments paid directly to people’s providers.
The initial timeline given for delivery of the fund was the end of October.
Applications were set to open on 17 October but this did not happen.
Previously, Derry City and Strabane District Council said the reason for a “short delay” in introducing the scheme in the north west was due to “the unsuccessful appointment of a fuel payment partner”.
On Tuesday, the council confirmed to BBC Radio Foyle that it has still to appoint a fuel payment partner for the scheme and is hoping to finalise this “in the coming weeks”.
In a statement, the council said that it will give a further update “once that process is completed”.
In an update on Wednesday, it has emerged it will cost the council about £15,000 to source a new fuel payment partner at this stage.
In order to be eligible for the fund, households must fulfil one of the following eligibility criteria:
The households must earn a total income of under £40,000
A member of the household is entitled to free school meals
The household is in debt with an energy provider
There is a “vulnerable person” in the household
A member of the household has recently been become unemployed
A member of the household is on a zero-hour contract
The scheme is designed for emergency situations when a householder is unable to pay fuel bills or buy a top-up and is set to operate on a referral system.
The referrals can be made by any local support organisation, a local school, church or charity.
Individuals can also make a self-referral and these application forms will be available on the council website when the scheme goes live.
A household can only receive one payment through the fund.
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