Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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696. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection further to Parliamentary Question No. 277 of 24 January 2019, if the telephone support allowance is only available to pensioners who qualify for the fuel and the living alone allowances; if so, the reason such an allowance is not available to couples who would receive it based on a means test; the estimated cost to extend same to pensioners who qualify for the fuel allowance but do not live alone; and her plans to extend the allowance in the coming period. [6241/19]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Telephone Support Allowance (TSA) is a weekly payment of €2.50. Approximately 129,000 customers are in receipt of the TSA payment. The estimated full year cost of the scheme is over €16 million.

To receive the allowance a customer of my department must be in receipt of a qualifying payment and also in receipt of the Living Alone Allowance and the Fuel Allowance. Qualifying payments for the allowance are State Pension (Contributory and Non-Contributory), Widow’s, Widower’s or Surviving Civil Partner’s Contributory Pension Invalidity Pension, Disability Allowance, Blind Pension, Disablement Pension (Incapacity Supplement), Deserted Wife’s Benefit and Widow’s, Widower’s or Surviving Civil Partner’s Contributory Pension under the Occupational Injuries Scheme.

The primary objective of the TSA is to allow the most vulnerable people at risk of isolation, including the elderly and those with disabilities, access to personal alarms or phones for security. Therefore the criteria for the allowance were framed in order to direct the limited resources available to my Department in as targeted a manner as possible. People who live alone would be considered amongst those most at risk of social isolation, and this payment, along with the Living Alone Allowance (LAA), are also in part a recognition of the greater challenges facing those living alone in avoiding poverty. The deprivation rate of couples over 65 is less than half that recorded among those over that age who live alone.

The number of pensioners eligible for Fuel Allowance but not LAA is 78,960 which would result in an estimated full year cost of extending TSA to this cohort of €10.265 million. Any decision to extend in this manner would have to be considered in the context of overall budgetary negotiations.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.