Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Independent)
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407. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the position in relation to a person in receipt of a pension who had the telephone allowance, if there are any exemptions or allowances for persons living alone who have monitored phone alarms or panic buttons, who rely on landline telephone connection; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1709/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The overall concern of the Government in recent budgets has been to protect the primary weekly social welfare rates. 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 2013, an increase of 25%. Each year almost 10,000 extra customers became eligible for the allowance because of the increased number of pension recipients.

The telephone allowance was abolished from 1 January 2014. I am not in a position to make exemptions to this decision. I am keenly aware of the impact on the Department’s customers and particularly those who are living alone. However, in ending the telephone allowance my Department has 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 landline service linked to a personal alarm.

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 are also personal security services that use mobile technology rather than land lines.

The Department of Environment, Community and Local Government operates the seniors alert scheme which provides grant support for the supply of equipment such as personal alarms, smoke detectors and security lighting to enable older people without sufficient means to continue to live securely in their homes. The budget allocation for 2013 was €2.35 million. There has been no reduction in this funding in Budget 2014.