Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 November 2018
543. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will consider reintroducing pension benefits for former CIÉ employees such as the telephone rental allowance and the energy allowance. [49164/18]
View answerThe household benefits package (HHB) comprises the electricity or gas allowance, and the free television licence. My Department will spend approximately €237 million this year on HHB for over 440,000 customers. There have been no recent changes to the eligibility criteria for the HHB package.
The package is generally available to people living in the State aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of a social welfare type payment or who satisfy a means test. The package is also available to some people under the age of 66 who are in receipt of certain welfare type payments.
Persons aged 70 or over including former CIE employees do not have to undergo a means test or satisfy the household composition requirement to qualify for the HHB package. Persons aged between 66 and 70 who are not receiving a qualifying payment from the Department e.g. State pension, must satisfy a means test and also the household composition test. Therefore former CIE employees aged between 66 and 70 can apply for the HHB package and may receive HHB if they satisfy the qualifying criteria.
Any decision to change the qualifying criteria for HHB, e.g. to waive the means test for CIE pensioners under 70 with no state pension, 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.
In Budget 2014, the decision was made to abolish the telephone allowance. The savings arising from the initial reduction and subsequent discontinuance of the telephone allowance meant that my Department was able to retain the other valuable elements of the household benefits package such as the electricity and gas allowance and the television licence. With the improved economic conditions in Budget 2018 I announced a new scheme called the Telephone Support Allowance (TSA). The primary objective of the TSA payment is to allow the most vulnerable people access to personal alarms or phones for security by providing a contribution towards the cost. People in receipt of qualifying Social Protection payments and also in receipt of the living alone increase and fuel allowance automatically qualify for the TSA.
I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
