Social Welfare Benefits

Wednesday, 30 September 2026

Ceisteanna (114)

Cormac Devlin

Ceist:

114. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of recipients of telephone support allowance; the expenditure on the allowance in each of the years 2021 to 2025 and to date in 2026, in tabular form; the number of recipients of the household benefits package aged 70 or over who do not receive telephone support allowance; and the estimated full-year cost of extending telephone support allowance at the current rate to all recipients of the household benefits package aged 70 or over, and separately to all free travel pass holders aged 66 or over. [69199/26]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Social Protection

As of the end of August 2026, there were 164,854 recipients of Telephone Support Allowance.

Of the 393,730 recipients of Household Benefits who were aged 70 or over, there were 296,800 who were not recipients of Telephone Support Allowance.

Expenditure (in millions of €) on Telephone Support Allowance for the years 2021 to 2025 is provided below. Expenditure for 2026 is not yet available.

-	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Expenditure (€million)	18.12	18.38	19.95	20.73	21.25

The estimated full-year cost of extending Telephone Support Allowance at the current rate to all recipients of the household benefits package aged 70 or over would be €36.18 million.

The estimated full-year cost of extending telephone support allowance at the current rate to all free travel pass holders aged 66 or over would be €93.43 million.