The free telephone rental allowance is available 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. People in those circumstances are vulnerable in certain respects and, accordingly, the main purpose of the allowance is to ensure that they have some way of summoning help when it is needed.
The living alone condition was eased with effect from July 1994 for pensioners aged 75 or over. From that date, those aged 75 or over and entitled to the free telephone rental allowance retain the allowance where another person comes to live with them. Similarly, this concession is also available to couples as soon as the pensioner in receipt of the qualifying payment reaches age 75. In the case of the spouse of the pensioner reaching age 75 before the pensioner, the free telephone rental allowance may be awarded to the spouse subject to satisfying the usual conditions in his or her own right. This requires the spouse being in receipt of a qualifying payment and having the telephone registered in his or her own name. On the basis of the details supplied, it is unlikely that the person concerned would qualify in her own right.
The concession in relation to the living alone condition is age related in respect of either one of a couple who meets the conditions of the scheme. In that regard, men and women are treated equally. The proposal put forward in the context of the case referred to by the Deputy is that the free telephone rental allowance should be available to a pensioner under 75 when his or her spouse reaches 75. This would clearly have cost implications and could be considered only in the context of available resources and I will have the matter examined in that regard. I should mention that the free telephone rental allowance currently serves about 132,000 people at an annual cost of £23 million.
