asked the Minister for Social Welfare if she will consider the possiblity of extending benefits now available to widows over 66 years of age to all widows.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Benefits to Widows.
4.
Widows aged 66 or over and in receipt of a social welfare pension are entitled to free electricity allowance, free television licence or free telephone rental provided they fulfil the living alone and other conditions particular to those schemes. The free travel scheme applies to persons aged 66 or over whether they are living alone or not. If it were proposed to extend these schemes to include widows under 66, the position of other long-term beneficiaries under 66 would also have to be considered. This would alter fundamentally the nature of the schemes and would have significant cost implications. There are no proposals in present financial circumstances for such an extension.
Would the Minister accept that where a widow is under 66 years of age and prior to her husband's death the family were in receipt of all these benefits, it is particularly harsh? She loses her husband, the benefits that the family were getting and then loses her free electricity allowance and all the other allowances that were available to her at that stage. Would the Minister further accept that in these circumstances there is no loss to the Government? It is something that is already being paid out. I have put down this question to several Ministers and the Minister should take a very close look at it.
I appreciate that the Deputy has been pursuing this question for some time. I appreciate his concern. I have looked into the question most carefully to see what, if anything, could be done in this area. It is not strictly true to say that it would not have any cost elements. It has cost elements because it would mean extending the allowance to persons who do not have the allowance at present. It is putting it the other way to say that we would be taking them away from somebody who has them at present. It would mean that there would be a new category of person who would be getting these allowances. I have asked about the costing of such an extension and I am told that it is difficult to say what the cost would be but it is considered to be significant.
Another problem arises from this matter and one which may have already been mentioned to the Deputy. We would then have a position where one category of widow under 66 years of age who had been entitled to these benefits would be treated quite differently from another category of widow under 66 years of age who did not have these benefits. The situation could arise where, because of that being anomalous, we would then have more people who would say that in that case the broader issue of all long-term beneficiaries under 66 years of age should be dealt with and the question should be extended. I know that that may sound very tortuous and may create difficulties. Unfortunately, as the Deputy is well aware, one has to look at every implication of these suggestions. Unfortunately, the implications seem to rule out the suggestion.
The Minister stated that no costing has been done. May I ask her to examine the likely cost of providing a scheme such as this? Would she accept, in the case of a widow under 66 years of age who had been in receipt of these benefits and who has a teenage family attending second level education, that losing these benefits after she loses her husband caused tremendous difficulties for a family? For that reason would she look seriously at the possibility of reviewing that whole question?
I may be of a little help to the Deputy on the costing element. I can give one kind of costing which may give some indication of the position. The estimated cost of extending the free electricity, telephone, travel and television licence scheme in a full year to include widows in receipt of social welfare pension would amount to £6.5 million. If we were to extend further, as pressure might force us to do, those schemes to all long-term social welfare recipients under 66 years of age, we would be talking about a sum of £64 million. That is all the costings I have at present. It would be worth while to see if we could get more detailed costing on this element that the Deputy is pursuing. I am worried about other implications of it.