I propose to take Questions Nos. 11 and 13 together.
No person at present in receipt of free electricity allowance, free television licence or free telephone rental will be deprived of those allowances as a result of the new dependency arrangements which came into force in the week commencing 17 November, 1986 and it is quite wrong to suggest that any decision was made to do so.
Entitlement to free electricity allowance and free television licence is subject to the condition that the pensioner be living alone or only with certain categories of person. Under these arrangements hitherto, a married man who was living with his wife automatically qualified for an allowance, whereas a married woman pensioner living with her non-pensioner husband was only entitled to the allowance if the husband was invalided. In future entitlement to these allowances will be subject to the revised dependency conditions which now apply in the social welfare system generally. This means that men and women will have an equal right to claim these allowances in future.
Entitlement to the free telephone rental allowance is not affected by the revised definition of dependency. The qualifying conditions for this allowance require that the pensioner must either be living entirely alone or with a child under age 15 or an incapacitated person.