HC Deb 14 July 1977 vol 935 cc960-2

'—(1) Paragraph 19 of Schedule 5 to the Finance Act 1975 (Trusts for mentally disabled persons) shall be amended as follows.

(2) In sub-paragraph (1) after the words "a mentally disabled person" there shall be inserted the words "or of a person in receipt of an attendance allowance".

(3) In sub-paragraphs (2)(a) and (3) for the words "he mentally disabled person" there shall be substituted the words "the person mentioned in sub-paragraph (1) above".

(4) In sub-paragraph (2)(b) after the words "for the benefit of the mentally disabled person" there shall be inserted the words "or, as the case may be, for the care or maintenance of the person in receipt of the attendance allowance".

(5) At the end of sub-paragraph (4) there shall be added the words "and 'attendance allowance' means an allowance under section 35 of the Social Security Act 1975 or the Social Security (Northern Ireland) Act 1975".'.—[Mr. Pardoe.]

Brought up, and read the First time.

11.45 p.m.

Mr. Pardoe

I beg to move, That the clause be read a, Second time.

In Committee I moved New Clause 99, and New Clause 73 is a further attempt to get this matter dealt with in a rather re-drafted form. It deals with trusts for disabled persons. There are now tax concessions for trusts set up for mentally handicapped people.

In Committee I argued that these concessions should be extended to trusts set up for other types of disabled people. The Government argued that there were special reasons which applied to the mentally handicapped. I do not deny that those people are in a special category. As I remember, the argument was that they were unable to handle their own financial affairs and, therefore, they had to have trusts, whereas other disabled persons might or might not be able to handle their financial affairs.

I said that I did not believe that that distinction was valid. I am more and more convinced of that view. I believe that it would be sensible to make this quite minor change and to allow these same tax concessions to others. It is not too difficult to define, and it is fairly clear in New Clause 73 that we could use the entitlement to attendance allowance as the qualifying entitlement.

Mr. Denzil Davies

As the hon. Member for Cornwall, North (Mr. Pardoe) has said, the clause extends the existing capital transfer tax relief for trusts for the mentally disabled to cover trusts for those in receipt of attendance allowance. A clause was moved in Committee which would have gone further than this one. It was resisted. However, this clause applies to those in receipt of attendance allowance. For that reason, and because it is more restricted, I am happy to recommend to the House that it be accepted.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause read a Second time, and added to the Bill.

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