I remember reading about those benefits for the over 65s in Ireland some years ago and thinking how much better the Irish govt. treats its pensioners than in the U.K.
There is a winter fuel allowance here, but nothing like the level of the fuel allowances in the RoI. The UK govt. recently introduced free TV licenses for those over 75, but there is no telephone allowance.
Bus/train passes are issued by local councils for certain areas, so I think it varies considerably around the country, but again it's nothing like the Irish system where pensioners can travel free from Dublin to Kerry and back.
I remember when I visited Clearwater, Fla. back in 1992 they ran a trolley service completely free-of-charge to everybody within the city limits and to the adjacent islands. (Well, free as in no fare -- Paid for out of city taxes presumably.)
How could you run on 5 amps?
It seems very restrictive to us, but in the case of some developing African country I think we need to look at it from a very different perspective.
Leave out the high-power devices we're used to, and what could they use?
5A would be quite adequate to run half a dozen lights and a radio or TV. So long as everything else isn't running at the same time, it would even be enough for a small low-power kettle, like the 750W types that are sometimes used for caravanning here.
Even in France there are some small old cottages which still have a single-phase 15A supply.