HC Deb 24 November 1969 vol 792 cc17-20
27. Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement on the action he intends to take to help those disabled who will not benefit from the proposed constant attendance allowance and invalidity pension.

Mr. Ennals

The new benefits we propose are designed to help those disabled people who suffer most hardship. These include all who are so seriously handicapped as to need a lot of help from other people in the ordinary functions of daily living, people of working age with a disability which keep them off work for a long period, and those who will never be able to work again.

Mr. Ashley

I appreciate the new benefits, but my Question asked about the thousands of severely disabled people who will not receive them. Will my hon. Friend be more specific, and say "None" if he means none, and recognise that his Answer will cause profound concern among the disabled?

Mr. Ennals

My hon. Friend perhaps under-estimates the importance of the new invalidity pension and the constant attendance allowance. Severely disabled people incapable of full-time work are already entitled to sickness benefits and supplementary benefits, or both, and they will continue to be so entitled.

Mr. Prior

What estimate has the Minister of the numbers who will be helped by the constant attendance allowance? Is it not intolerable that this does not come in until 1972, and that more is not being done now for the many thousands of disabled who will not be helped by the Government's plans?

Mr. Ennals

I would not care to give an estimate now. This sort of figure will be given when the Bill to provide for the allowance is published. The hon. Gentleman uses the word "deplorable", but we must recognise that this is the first time such an attendance allowance has been introduced, and I am surprised that, instead of carping, the hon. Gentleman is not congratulating the Government on introducing a Measure that his party never thought of.

Mr. Dean

We welcome this move forward, but does not the hon. Gentleman agree that it should be a much higher priority in the state of present knowledge than writing pension cheques for the next generation to honour?

Mr. Ennals

It is not just a question of writing pension cheques which the next generation will honour. We are doing two things in the new scheme. By paying at new rates we are establishing an entitlement to higher rates of benefit, but we are also paying for the pensions of those who today are pensioners.

28. Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will institute a Departmental study into methods used by other countries to provide pensions for all disabled persons, with particular reference to their suitability for Great Britain, from information available from international sources.

Mr. Ennals

We already have a good deal of information about the provision for the various classes of disabled people in other countries. We have taken this into account in formulating our own proposals for the new earnings-related invalidity pension and the attendance allowance, in which we have thought it right to give priority to those who are hardest hit.

Mr. Ashley

Is my hon. Friend aware that some countries give more generous provision for the disabled than we do? I welcome the new proposals, but is any study being made of the proposal for a pension for disabled housewives?

Mr. Ennals

I could not accept my hon. Friend's generalisation that other countries make more generous provision for the disabled than we do. There are one or two cases where we must look with admiration at them, but in general the provision made in this country, certainly under the new scheme, will put us way ahead of most other countries.

Miss Quennell

Will the Minister consider publishing the considerable information that he says his Department has, so that Members concerned about the problem of disablement in this country have a chance to make comparative studies?

Mr. Ennals

Yes, Sir. As I think the hon. Lady knows, the Government Social Survey has been conducting a study of disability in this country. The study is already completed and the material is being analysed. We hope that at least some of it can be published to be considered when Parliament is considering the new constant attendance allowance, and then the remaining part of the report will be published during the next year.