The free electricity allowance is available to people, usually aged 66 or over, who are either in receipt of a welfare type payment or who satisfy a means test. It is also available to people with disabilities under the age of 66 who are in receipt of certain welfare type pensions. In addition, widows/widowers between the ages of 60 and 65, whose late spouses were in receipt of the allowance, retain that entitlement.
One of the qualifying conditions for the free electricity allowance is that the applicant must be living alone or living only with certain excepted people as follows: a qualified adult, and-or dependent child(ren) under age 18 or under age 22 if in full-time education, and-or a person who is disabled (medical certification must be provided), and-or a person who would qualify for the allowance in his/her own right and-or a person providing the applicant or another person living with the applicant with constant care and attention if the applicant or that other person is disabled. Medical certification must be supplied.
Budget 2000 made provision for the extension of the free schemes to all persons aged 75 years and over, regardless of their income and household composition. In addition, the free electricity allowance and free television licence schemes will be extended to all carers in receipt of the carer's allowance and to carers who are caring for people in receipt of constant attendance or prescribed relatives allowance. Both of these measures will be implemented from October 2000.
The free schemes were originally designed to benefit mainly older people in receipt of a social welfare type payment who were living alone and required additional assistance. However, over the years, additional categories of people have been included. A fundamental review of the free schemes is being carried out to assess whether the objectives of these schemes are being achieved in the most efficient and effective manner. This includes an examination of the qualifying conditions for the schemes, the target groups and the scope for alternative policy arrangements.
The review of the free schemes is being carried out by an official of my Department on secondment as a visiting research fellow at the Policy Institute, Trinity College, Dublin. It is expected that the research conducted will be formally published by the Policy Institute in the "Trinity Studies in Public Policy" series in March 2000.
