§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what information his Department collects centrally regarding the operation of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 by local authorities; and if he is satisfied that this is sufficient to enable him to monitor how the Act is being administered by local authorities.
§ Mr. PrenticeLocal authorities supply information to the Department to meet the requirements of section 18(1) and on most of the welfare services provided under section 2 of the 1970 Act. The implementation of the Act is, in the main, a matter for individual local authorities, which are best placed to monitor its administration.
564Wpensioners (see definition in notes below table) receiving supplementary benefit from 1968–1976 is contained in table 34.99 of Social Security Statistics 1977. Further information on the number of pensioners for selected years is in the table below; the cost of doing this for every year could not be justified.
NATIONAL INSURANCE (NI) PENSIONERS* RECEIVING AND DEPENDENT ON NATIONAL ASSISTANCE/ SUPPLEMENTARY BENEFIT (NA/SB) (Great Britain) Year(a) Pensioners dependent on NA/SB†(b) (b)As percentage of all NI pensioners(c) 1954 1,174,000 26.3 1958 1,039,000 19.4 1968 2,008,000 28.1 1978 1,881,000 22.3 * Retirement pensioners and Widow Pensioners over pension age, but excluding Widows Allowance cases. †Counting married women with a retirement pension separately.