HC Deb 22 May 1981 vol 5 cc221-2W
Mr. Ray Powell

asked the Secretary of State for Wales what is the most recent estimate of the percentage of the population in Wales, including children and people living in hospital and residential care, who suffer from some impairment; of this percentage, what percentage are very severely, severely or appreciably handicapped; of the total with some impairment, what percentage are (a) over 65 years and (b) over 75 years; and of the very severely, severely or appreciably handicapped, what percentage are (i) over 65 years and (ii) over 75 years.

Mr. Michael Roberts

At 31 March 1980 the percentage of the population on the registers of handicapped persons held by local authorities was as follows:

Year ending 31 March
1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980
Clwyd 2,972 4,281 4,234 4,426 4,626 4,089
Dyfed 3,026 3,289 3,378 3,697 3,903 4,252
Gwent 6,628 6,728 6,865 6,911 6,992 7,369
Gwynedd 2,189 2,528 2,584 2,774 2,908 3,265
Mid Glamorgan 8,319 9,059 10,080 10,927 11,475 12,647
Powys 921 975 980 848 1,031 1.111
South Glamorgan 5,335 6,075 5,429 5,354 6,003 6,278
West Glamorgan 4,085 4,743 5,077 5,220 5,389 5,425
WALES 33,475 37,678 38,627 40,157 42,327 44,436

Information relating to the cost to recipients of domestic help in Wales is not collected by the Welsh Office. Certain information relating to hours of service provided is, however, published by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy in its annual "Personal Social Services Statistics Estimates", copies of which are

per cent
Blind or partially sighted 0.3
Deaf or Hard of hearing 0.1
General classes 2.2

Information on severity of handicap is available only for those on the general classes register. Of those who were classified by degree of handicap, 10 per cent. were very severely handicapped and 58 per cent. were severely or appreciably handicapped. The age distribution is given in the following table:

Severity of handicap
Percentage* aged: Very severely handicapped Severely or appreciably handicapped All registered persons
65 and over 50 64 62
75 and over 26 33 32
* Excludes persons of unknown age.