Elizabeth Katz Office of Consumer Policy New York State Department of Public Service

Telephone Lifeline Program Basics Offers qualified consumers a discount on their monthly charges for their primary home phone local telephone bill, including cellular New York’s program in effect since 1985 All incumbent local companies and some competitive companies in New York State offer Lifeline 2

Lifeline Program Elements Offers a waiver of the federal subscriber line charge which is a savings of a minimum of $75 annually Offers discounted monthly bills for basic local telephone service Discount on monthly bill varies by telephone provider 3

Lifeline Facts In 2010 New York State had 815,437 Lifeline enrollees In 2009 Verizon was the largest Lifeline provider in New York State In 2009 at least 58 companies in New York State were providing Lifeline services 4

Lifeline Eligibility Criteria Customers are eligible if enrolled or income eligible for at least one of these programs: Family Assistance Food Stamps (FS) Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) Medicaid (MA) Safety Net Assistance Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Veteran’s Disability Pension and Surviving Spouse Pension (non-service related) 5

Automatic Enrollment Automatic enrollment started in 1994 Verizon participates Eligibility confirmed by electronic match of OTDA client records to telephone customer records Customers notified of eligibility via letter from phone company Customers given 30 days to decline—if not, they are automatically enrolled 6

OTDA and Lifeline OTDA clients are made aware of Lifeline when applying for social service benefits OTDA clients have option of not sharing information with phone companies by checking off a box on the OTDA application Eligibility information provided to phone companies from OTDA is confidential and can’t be used for any other purpose other than automatic enrollment or re- certification 7

Re-certification of eligibility for Lifeline Under FCC rules, all Lifeline customers need to re- certify their eligibility annually Customers who don’t provide proof of benefits are switched to the comparable service at full rate Re-certification can also be done through automatic enrollment process 8

The Link Up Program Customers who qualify for Lifeline also qualify for Link-Up Link-Up provides assistance to low income households for the installation of new phone service Link-Up covers up to $30 of the cost of installing local phone service to the home, even if it is a cell phone Link-Up also lets consumers borrow up to $200 for set- up fees, interest free, for up to one year Link-Up does not cover the cost of the actual phone 9

For more information please see: wwww.lifeline.gov