Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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361. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will reconsider her decision to withdraw the telephone rental allowance where the household involved is renting specialised telephone equipment to deal with hearing difficulties; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50370/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The overall concern of the Government in this and previous budgets has been to protect the primary weekly social welfare rates and we are not in a position to reverse this budget measure. Maintaining the rate of the State pension and other core payments is critical in relation to protecting people from poverty. To allow us to protect these core payments, we have had to look very carefully at other additional payments. The cost of the telephone allowance scheme had risen each year with the number of eligible customers also increasing significantly. In 2007 there were some 316,000 people receiving the telephone allowance compared to almost 396,000 at the end of September this year, an increase of 25%. Each year almost 10,000 extra customers become eligible for the allowance because of the increased number of pension recipients.

I am keenly aware of the impact on the Department’s customers. While we are ending the telephone allowance the savings that this will provide means that we have been able to keep at the same rates the other elements of the household benefits package, including the free electricity/gas allowance and the free television licence. We have also retained the fuel allowance, free travel and the living alone increase.

The monthly allowances under the household benefits package are a contribution towards the cost of services; they are not intended to meet those costs in full. The ending of the telephone allowance of €9.50 per month (or about €2.20 per week) will not result in the automatic removal of any specialised telephone equipment. Indeed, since the Budget announcement, I am aware that one telephone company has advertised that they will cover the value of the allowance. I would hope that other telephone companies will consider this.

The telephone allowance was introduced at a time when telephones were expensive and uncommon and a landline service was the only option available to the customer. The market has changed enormously since the introduction of the allowance, with several companies providing a range of services and rates with bundled services including television, telephone and broadband and pay-as-you-go mobiles. There has been a marked decline in the use of specialist telecommunications equipment for people with hearing difficulties since the advent of mobile and smart ‘phones.