Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 504: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his views on abolishing the living alone requirement for pensioners to qualify for the free schemes; and if he will extend the free schemes to all pensioners including those who have family members living with them. [34091/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The household benefits package, which comprises the electricity/gas allowance, telephone allowance and television licence schemes, is generally available to people living permanently in the State, aged 66 years or over, who are in receipt of a social welfare type payment or who satisfy a means test. The package is also available to carers and people with disabilities under the age of 66 who are in receipt of certain welfare type payments. Widows and widowers aged from 60 to 65 whose late spouses had been in receipt of the household benefits package retain that entitlement to ensure that households do not suffer a loss of entitlements following the death of a spouse.

People aged over 70 years of age can qualify for the household benefits package regardless of their income or household composition. Those aged under 70 must live alone or only with certain excepted people in order to qualify. Excepted people for the purposes of the scheme include qualified adults, dependent children under age 18 or under age 22 if in full time education, people who are so incapacitated as to require constant care and attention for at least 12 months; people who would qualify for the allowance in their own right, people who are providing constant care and attention to any member of the household who is so incapacitated as to require constant care and attention for at least 12 months.

A range of proposals have been made to extend the coverage of the household benefits package of free schemes. These proposals are kept under review in the context of the objectives of the scheme and budgetary resources.

Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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Question 505: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the conditions required for payment of social insurance contributions for wives of self-employed persons who are employed in running a family business; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34291/06]

Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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Question 506: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the conditions required for payment of social insurance contributions for wives of self-employed persons who are involved in running a family business; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34292/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 505 and 506 together.

Under Parts 2 and 3 of Schedule 1 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, employment by a spouse or self-employment in which the spouse of a self-employed contributor participates or assists in the business but is not a business partner is excluded from social insurance cover.

Spouses who operate a business as a partnership and share the profits may be insurable as self-employed contributors at PRSI Class S, provided each has a reckonable income of €3,174 per year or more from all sources.

A person who works for a Limited Company that is owned by a spouse is not regarded as working for the spouse because the employment relationship is with the Limited Company rather than with the spouse who owns it. Such a person, depending on the circumstances of the employment may be insurable at Class A or Class S.