Vol. 443 No. 4
91 Proinsias De Rossa asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will extend the free telephone rental allowance to old age pensioners who have retired from local authority staff positions and who are currently disqualified because they are not in receipt of a Department of Social Welfare pension.
The free telephone rental allowance administered by my Department is available only to people who are in receipt of certain welfare type payments and who are either living alone or only with children or persons who, because they are so permanently incapacitated, could not get help in an emergency. The number of people getting the allowance at present is about 114,000 at an annual cost of some £20 million.
Depending on the level of the pension, a person in receipt of an occupational pension may be entitled to receive an old age (non-contributory) pension from my Department at a reduced rate and, if he or she is so entitled and can satisfy the living alone condition of the scheme, he or she will qualify for the free telephone rental allowance. Extending the allowance to categories who do not qualify under the current conditions would have financial implications and could only be considered in a budgetary context.
