Neil T.C. Blaney
Ceist:139 Mr. Blaney asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will extend the free electricity allowance to all pensioners over 80 years of age and not just confine it to those who were eligible before October 1990.
Written Answers. - Social Welfare Benefits.
One of the conditions for free electricity allowance requires that the claimant must be either living alone or only with certain excepted persons such as a dependent spouse or, in the case of an invalid, a person providing the claimant with full-time care and attention.
With effect from October, 1990, pensioners in receipt of free electricity allowance and who are over the age of 80 have been allowed to retain their entitlement to the allowance where a person, other than an excepted person, comes to live with them. That arrangement continues to apply to all pensioners over the age of 80 entitled to a free electricity allowance.