Between 2007 and November 24, 2010, there were 2,093 persons who no longer qualified for reductions in telephone bills offered by the Department of Community Care for the Elderly, Health Minister Joseph Cassar said in Parliament on Tuesday in reply to a question by Labour MP Anthony Agius Decelis.
The numbers had been 406 in 2007, 734 in 2008, 443 in 2009 and 510 in 2010.
Dr Cassar said that besides death there were two main reasons why such people had stopped receiving the benefit: changing over to Go plc special offers and having their pink sheet (karta roża) withheld by the Department of Social Services.