Vol. 415 No. 1
273 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Social Welfare if a person (details supplied) in County Kildare who has requested an old age contributory pension will gain any benefit from his contributions made between 1943 and 1953 having regard to the fact that he only has a yearly average of 17 based on contributions from 1953 onwards; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Under social welfare legislation, contributions made prior to 1953 cannot be used to increase the yearly average contribution record for retirement or old age contributory pension purposes.
In order to qualify for old age contributory pension it is necessary for claimants to have a yearly average of not less than 20 contributions paid or credited from 1953, or from the year of their entry into social insurance if later, to the end of the last contribution year before reaching pension age.
The application of the person concerned was refused on 19 April 1991 as his yearly average was too low. This decision was confirmed by the independant social welfare appeals office on 27 August 1991.
274 Mr. Sheehan asked the Minister for Social Welfare the reason a person (details supplied) in County Cork did not receive her arrears of old age pension due to her from 8 July 1991 to 17 January 1992.
Following a revised decision, the person concerned has been awarded a maximum rate old age non-contributory pension from 12 July 1991 — the Friday following her 66th birthday. A pension book was issued to her local post office, payable from 17 January 1992 and full arrears will be issued directly to her shortly.
275 Mr. J. Mitchell asked the Minister for Social Welfare his views on the present situation whereby certain retired public servants who live solely on Civil Service pensions or on pensions of certain statutory agencies are excluded from entitlement to such things as (1) a free telephone rental allowance, (2) a free television licence and (3) a free electricity allowance even though their means are often less than the means of those on social welfare pensions who qualify for these additional benefits; if in the circumstances, he will remove this anomaly; and if in the case of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 7, these benefits will be allowed.
Eligibility for the "free schemes" such as a telephone rental allowance, television licence and electricity allowance is confined to persons living alone who are in receipt of social welfare type pensions. A person in receipt of an occupational pension, the rate of which is below the level of non-contributory old age pension, would be entitled to apply for a fuel allowance in addition to a partial non-contributory pension.
The annual cost of the free schemes is of the order of £47 million. The additional cost of extending the schemes to public service pensioners would be substantial and it would not be possible to introduce such an extension at this time.
I might add that the question of extending full social insurance pension to public servants, is one of the aspects of pensions generally which are under examination by the National Pensions Board. The board's final report is expected to be available in the near future.
