Vol. 450 No. 4
124 Mr. Aylward asked the Minister for Social Welfare the cost to the Exchequer of extending the free electricity allowance and free telephone rental allowance to widows who are in receipt of widows pensions from the Department of Social Welfare; and if he will consider providing the necessary finance to extend these schemes. [5276/95]
The free electricity allowance and free telephone rental allowance are available to widows in receipt of a pension from my Department who are aged 66 years or over and who satisfy the living alone condition attached to those schemes. In addition, widows of 60 years and over can qualify for these schemes, subject to the other conditions, if their late husbands had an entitlement up to the time of their deaths.
The cost of extending these schemes to widows in receipt of a pension from my Department who do not qualify at present is estimated at about £15 million per annum. Any extension of that nature would have to be considered in a budgetary context.
