John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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149. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the reason persons aged under 60 years of age in receipt of a widow's contributory pension are unable to qualify for the household benefits package and mortgage interest supplement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3347/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The household benefits package (HHB) comprises the electricity or gas allowance, and the free television licence. My Department will spend approximately €232 million this year on HHB for over 424,000 customers.

The package is generally available to people living 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 some people under the age of 66 who are in receipt of certain welfare type payments. Therefore anyone aged less than 70 years of age must be in receipt of a qualifying payment from the Department or satisfy a means test in order to qualify for HHB.

People in receipt of HHB aged under 66 are generally in receipt of payments such as Invalidity Pension, Disability Allowance or Carers. These payment types mean that the recipients are unable to work full time and earn additional income. This is not the case for people in receipt of widow’s contributory payment who are aged less than 66. These recipients are of working age and may take up full-time employment, at any level of remuneration, without losing entitlement to their widow’s contributory payment.

In general, widow’s pension only becomes a qualifying payment for HHB once the recipient reaches the age of 66 (State pension age) to ensure alignment with secondary benefits that are available to people in receipt of the State pension.

The concession whereby widows aged between 60 and 65 years, whose late spouse/civil partner received HHB from my Department, may qualify for the package was introduced at a time when State pension age was 65 and this cohort of widows were seen as less likely to be in a position to take up employment than those of a younger age.

Any decision to extend the concession to widows aged less than 60 or to allow recipients of widow’s pension of any age to qualify for HHB would have budgetary consequences and would have to be considered in the context of budget negotiations. It would also be necessary to consider whether they would be a priority group for the extension of such benefits ahead of other groups such as the unemployed or lone parents.

The mortgage interest supplement (MIS) scheme was closed to new entrants from 1 January 2014.

The original purpose of the MIS scheme was to provide short-term support to eligible people who were unable to meet their mortgage interest repayments in respect of a house which was their sole place of residence. It is important that people experiencing difficulty meeting their home mortgage repayments engage with their lender to explore sustainable solutions.

The Money Advice and Budgeting Service, under the aegis of the Citizens Information Board, assists people who are over-indebted and need help and advice in coping with debt problems, in particular those on low incomes or living on social welfare payments. As part of its free services, MABS provides a dedicated mortgage arrears advisory service to help and advice those in mortgage arrears and a court mentoring service to assist those facing repossession proceedings. Additionally, the Government has recently put in place a scheme, known as Abhaile, to help people who are insolvent and in mortgage arrears on their home to access free, independent, expert advice. Borrowers can access one or more of the free financial and legal advice and assistance services by contacting the MABS helpline 0761072000 or any MABS office.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.