asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will give consideration to the extension of the free telephone rental scheme to include cases where couples who are both pensioners will be eligible under the terms of the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - Social Welfare Benefits.
43.
Entitlement to the free telephone rental allowance is confined to certain categories of old age pensioners and persons who are permanently incapacitated. In order to qualify for an allowance a claimant must be either living alone, or only with children under 15 years of age, or with people who are so incapacitated that they could not get help in an emergency. Where two pensioners are living together, the allowance is not payable unless one of them is so incapacitated that he or she could not get help for the other in an emergency.
The question of extending the free telephone rental allowance to cover additional categories of households would be a matter for consideration in a budgetary context.
44.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare the reason a person (details supplied) in County Kildare has been refused unemployment assistance having regard to circumstances (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The person concerned was disallowed unemployment assistance from 11 January 1989 on the grounds that by failing to disclose full details of his means, he failed to show that his yearly means did not exceed the statutory limit for receipt of a qualification certificate from that date.
He appealed against this decision and an appeals officer, in April 1989 also decided that he had failed to show that his means did not exceed the statutory limit.
He last signed the unemployed register on 11 April 1989 and has not been in touch since that date.