Vol. 490 No. 4
131 Mr. Timmins asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will extend the free electricity scheme to people living on their own when they reach 65 years of age in view of the fact that this is the age when most people retire; and the cost of this extension. [10288/98]
The free electricity allowance scheme is available to people, usually aged 66 or over, who are in receipt of a welfare type payment and other low income pensioners who are not in receipt of a social welfare type payment but whose weekly income is not greater than the maximum personal rate of old age (contributory) pension plus any increases for dependants, plus £30. It is also available to certain people with disabilities under that age who are in receipt of certain disability type pensions. In addition, widows-widowers between the ages of 60 and 65, whose late spouses had been in receipt of the free schemes, retain that entitlement.
One of the qualifying conditions of the free electricity allowance scheme is that the applicant is living alone or living only with certain excepted people. This condition is not, however, applied in the case of persons over age 75 who are in receipt of a qualifying payment.
