§ 71. Mr. Bryant Godman Irvineasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will introduce a scheme so that pensioners and seriously disabled persons living on small fixed incomes may be assisted to install or retain their telephones.
§ Mr. DeanA special scheme is not needed. The Supplementary Benefits Commission allows for the cost of installing and renting a telephone where a person eligible for supplementary benefit would otherwise be dangerously isolated, and local authorities will be required—under Section 2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act—to satisfy themselves of the need of a handicapped person of any age for a telephone and where necessary to provide, or help in obtaining, a telephone.
§ Mr. Goldingasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will now take steps to make wider provision of telephones for the housebound elderly and disabled by way of the Supplementary Benefits Commission.
§ Mr. DeanI would refer the hon. Member to my reply to my hon. Friend 123W the Member for Rye (Mr. Bryant Godman Irvine). I do not think it would be desirable to invite the Commission to relax its criteria. Where a person is not dangerously isolated, a telephone, however desirable, is one of a variety of things which a person may choose to have, and in the Government's view the proper course is to pay cash benefits for people to spend as they wish.