Vol. 449 No. 4
151 Mr. Dukes asked the Minister for Social Welfare the cost in a full year of granting the benefits of free telephone rental, free electricity, free television licence, free travel and free fuel to the surviving spouses of old age pensioners who are themselves below 60 years of age to which their deceased spouses were entitled. [3711/95]
As announced in the 1994 budget, surviving spouses aged between 60 and 65 retain entitlement to the free schemes to which their deceased spouses were entitled provided the other conditions relevant to those schemes continue to be satisfied. The cost of extending that concession on the same basis to all surviving spouses under 60 years of age is not readily available. I will write to the Deputy with the information as soon as it is available.
152 Mr. Davern asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he intends to introduce changes to allow British war disablement pensions as a qualifying payment for the free electricity allowance scheme to persons both under and over 66 years of age who also satisfy the other requirements of the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter.[3820/95]
The free electricity allowance scheme operated by my Department is available only to people who are in receipt of certain welfare type pensions and who satisfy the other conditions attached to the scheme. About 185,000 people receive the allowance at present at an annual cost of about £25 million. The allowance is also available to people in receipt of a social security pension from another member state of the EU or from a country with which Ireland has a bilateral social security agreement.
Any extension of qualifying payments for the purposes of the scheme to include British war disablement pensions irrespective of the age of the recipient would have to be considered in a budgetary context.
