Michael Bell
Ceist:116 Mr. Bell asked the Minister for Social Welfare the reason for the delay in processing the application for free telephone rental allowance to a person (details supplied) in County Louth.
Written Answers. - Free Telephone Rental Allowance.
A person under age 66 may qualify for free telephone rental allowance provided she satisfies a number of conditions. One of these conditions requires that the applicant must be in receipt of a qualifying payment. These payments include an invalidity pension or a blind person's pension from my Department or a disabled person's maintenance allowance from a health board.
The person concerned applied for a free telephone rental allowance in October 1993. As he was under age 66 at the time and was in receipt of a retirement pension, he did not satisfy the conditions of the free telephone rental scheme. A retirement pension is a qualifying payment but only for people aged 66 or over. However, as the pensioner was due to reach age 66 shortly, my Department decided to retain the claim for the person concerned and to arrange with Telecom Éireann to apply the allowance to his telephone account from mid-April 1994. A recent application by the person concerned for a living alone allowance has been awarded from 21 April 1994 — the Thursday following his 66th birthday. A letter notifying the person concerned of the award of the two allowances is in the course of issue to him.