Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 July 2018
526. Deputy Michael Moynihan asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reason a person in receipt of a widow's non-contributory pension is not eligible to apply for the telephone support allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29183/18]
View answerThe new weekly Telephone Support Allowance (TSA) is a payment of €2.50. Customers of the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection who are in receipt of a qualifying payment and who are also in receipt of the Living Alone Allowance and the Fuel Allowance automatically qualify for the TSA. Approximately 127,000 customers are in receipt of the TSA payment. The estimated full year cost of the scheme is €16.14 million.
The primary objective of the TSA is to allow the most vulnerable people at risk of isolation, including the elderly and those with disabilities, access to personal alarms or phones for security. The allowance will also encourage social contact and assist in the prevention of social isolation for those groups.
The criteria for receiving the TSA requires a person to be in receipt of the living alone increase. People on widow’s non-contributory pension are automatically transferred to the State pension non-contributory once the recipient reaches the age of 66 (i.e. at State pension age) to ensure alignment with the secondary benefits that are available to people in receipt of the State pension, and may qualify for the living alone increase and the TSA at that time.
The schemes that allow a person aged under 66 to receive the living alone increase or the TSA are Invalidity Pension, Disability Allowance, Incapacity Supplement or Blind Pension. Because of the qualifying criteria for these schemes recipients would be considered more vulnerable to social isolation. This is not generally the case for people in receipt of widow’s non-contributory payment who are aged less than 66, and who will not, as a rule, have an incapacity of that nature.
Any decision to extend both the living alone increase and the TSA to include people on the widow’s non-contributory payment would have budgetary consequences and would have to be considered in the context of budget negotiations. It would also be necessary to consider whether they would be a priority group for the extension of such benefits ahead of other groups.
I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
