Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 October 2024
518. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Minister for Social Protection the full-year cost of increasing the telephone support allowance to €5 and making it an additional entitlement on the household benefits package; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43060/24]
View answerThe Telephone Support Allowance is a weekly payment of €2.50 for people on certain social welfare payments who are also getting both the Living Alone Increase and the Fuel Allowance. The primary objective of the Telephone Support Allowance 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. Approximately 156,000 customers are in receipt of the Telephone Support Allowance payment. The full year cost of the scheme in 2024 is estimated at €20.9 million.
If the measure outlined by the Deputy was introduced in 2025, it is estimated that there would be an average of 163,000 recipients of the Telephone Support Allowance and an estimated average of 540,000 recipients of the Household Benefits Package; therefore, it is estimated that 377,000 households would benefit from the measure.
Based on a yearly rate of Telephone Support Allowance of €260, the estimated yearly cost of the additional 377,000 households would be €98 million.
Furthermore, the estimated 163,000 people who already have entitlement to the Telephone Support Allowance would see their yearly rate of payment increase by €130 to €260 at an estimated cost of €21.2 million.
The estimated total cost of the measures outlined by the Deputy is therefore €119.2 million.
|
Yearly Additional Rate of Telephone Support Allowance |
Estimated Number of Beneficiaries |
Estimated additional yearly Cost of Measure |
|
€260 |
377,000 |
€98 million |
|
€130 |
163,000 |
€21.2 million |
All proposals, including any proposals to expand the qualifying criteria and increase the rate payable for the Telephone Support Allowance could only be considered while taking account of overall Government policy and in a budgetary context.
I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
