The free schemes, including the free telephone rental allowance and the free television licence, are available to people, usually aged 66 or over, who are in receipt of a welfare type payment and who are either living alone or who otherwise satisfy the living alone condition. In addition, widows between the age of 60 and 65, whose late husbands had entitlement to the free schemes, retain that entitlement.
The free schemes were extended in July 1996 to low-income pensioners who were not in receipt of a social welfare type payment. The weekly income limit fixed for this purpose is the maximum personal rate of old age (contributory) pension, currently £75 per week, plus any increases for dependants, plus £30. The estimated additional annual cost of extending the two schemes in question to all widowed persons in receipt of a social welfare payment, regardless of their age or household composition circumstances, is £4.5 million in respect of the free television licence and £11.6 million in respect of the free telephone rental allowance. A further 69,820 recipients would be entitled to the free television licence and a further 71,200 recipients to the free telephone rental allowance.
The estimated costs of the two schemes in question, together with number of recipients, for each of the years 1995, 1996 and 1997 is as follows: