Constant Attendance Allowance

HC Deb 09 February 1970 vol 795 cc890-2

19. Mr. Fortescue

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how eligibility for the constant attendance allowance proposed in the National Superannuation and Social Insurance Bill is to be decided.

Mr. Ennals

Claims to the attendance allowance, like claims to other insurance benefits, will be decided by insurance officers. In doing so, they will be bound by the decision of the Attendance Allowance Board so far as the medical issues are concerned.

Mr. Fortescue

I accept that of course, but the Explanatory Memorandum to the Bill at present before the House gives the figure of 50,000 possible recipients of this allowance. How was this figure reached, and on what calculation was the disability figure arrived at?

Mr. Ennals

The degree of disability is set out in the Act concerning the amount of attention that may be required both during the day and at night. The figure of 50.000 is simply in a sense a "guestimate" that flows from the first information we have now received from the survey on disablement conducted last year from which results are just beginning to come forward.

Mr. Dean

Can the Minister say when the survey will be published? Does he appreciate that until we have that information it will be difficult to judge whether the Government have taken the right criteria for the constant attendance allowance?

Mr. Ennals

Yes, I am hoping that it will be possible to publish parts of the information. The whole report will take a considerable period of time. I am now looking at the information which is coming forward to make it available to the House, and also for the convenience of hon. Members serving on the Standing Committee, when we deal with this very important question.

20. Mr. Michael McNair-Wilson

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what estimate he has made of the number of mentally ill and sub-normal who will qualify for the constant attendance allowance proposed in the National Superannuation and Social Insurance Bill.

Mr. Ennals

Something under 5 per cent. of perhaps 50,000 beneficiaries are expected to have a serious mental impairment. A much larger proportion are likely to have a combination of mental and purely physical impairment. These estimates are based primarily on the preliminary results of the Government survey of disabled people living at home, according to the description of the main disability given by the disabled person or his attendant.

Mr. NcNair-Wilson

How many of those living at home will be entitled to this constant attendance allowance? Will they have to come before the board or will the board visit them?

Mr. Ennals

I cannot say what will be the exact number. This is only an estimate of what we expect will be the number who will be entitled to make claims. We expect that many more will make claims than perhaps entitlement would permit. We would not expect people in such a position to go before a board. Most of the initial assessment will be based on medical reports by general practitioners.