§ 38. Mr. GROVESasked the Minister of Health whether his attention has been called to the practice in some areas to place blind unemployable persons in receipt of domiciliary assistance in the same category at 65 years of age as sighted persons, and therefore assume that further assistance and care is not an obligation; and, as this method transgresses 1738 the principles of the Blind Persons Act of 1920 that an unemployable blind person means a person not employed who is incapable of employment in an economic sense and is not under training or capable of being trained, will he make it clear to local authorities that, as blind persons over 50 years of age are not normally capable of being trained, there is no need to treat them on such a basis?
§ Mr. SHAKESPEAREThe answer to the first part of the question is in the negative. My right hon. Friend has, however, information of one area in which blind persons who have not applied, and been found eligible, for assistance before reaching the age of 70, are not assisted under the Blind Persons Act. My right hon. Friend endeavoured to dissuade the local authority from making this rule but it is a matter within their discretion.