Back in October 2017 it was announced in Budget 2018 that a ” Telephone Support Allowance ” (TSA) would be paid to people who are getting both the Living Alone Increase and the Fuel Allowance.
This new allowance will be €2.50 a week and starts from June 4th 2018. (Total of €130 a year)
The TSA is supposed to help with the cost of communications and/or home alert systems.
The first payment will be made in the week commencing June 4th on the same payment day as your primary payment and will be paid as an additional sum on top of your primary payment.
The allowance will be paid automatically to people who qualify, so there is no need to apply for it.
There was previously a telephone allowance of €9.50 a month which was withdrawn back in January 2014 . This was part of the Household Benefits package that was paid to all people over 70 and certain people under 70 in receipt of certain pension or welfare payments.
The new Telephone Support Allowance will be paid to fewer people. It is estimated that 124,000 people will get the new allowance . Under the previous scheme – about 790,000 people got the telephone allowance.