HC Deb 11 July 1978 vol 953 cc1235-7
9. Mr. Rooker

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many persons are in receipt of mobility allowance and attendance allowance in Birmingham and the West Midlands.

Mr. Alfred Morris

The latest information available for the West Midlands region, which includes Birmingham, is that 6,439 people are currently receiving the mobility allowance and 27,035 the attendance allowance.

Mr. Rooker

I thank my hon. Friend for that information, and I pay tribute to his work in bringing these figures up, but will he take it that even in the past few days I have had constituents coming to see me who have only just found out about the mobility allowance? Moreover, I have another constituent—I do not want other hon. Members to be in the same position—who has fought on for three years because she did not know about the attendance allowance, yet this constituent, Mrs. Simkins, was in touch with every statutory authority that one could think of and no one pointed it out to her, with the result that she lost three years' attendance allowance.

Mr. Morris

My hon. Friend raises an important matter. I am very anxious to increase the take-up of all the new benefits. The additional help which this Government have made available for the dis- abled is wasted if people do not know of it and therefore do not claim. We have used press advertisements and press statements. We have been in touch with organisations of disabled people. The Attendance Allowance Board has been in touch with directors of social services and general practitioners. I shall do everything I possibly can to draw further attention to these new benefits, and I hope that every hon. Member on both sides of the House will do what he or she can to increase public knowledge of all that has been done for the disabled and of what is now available for them.

Mr. MacKay

Is the Minister aware that in my Birmingham constituency there are several mothers who have sons or daughters on kidney machines who are to lose their attendance allowance later this week? This is causing great hardship and distress. What will the Minister do to alleviate it?

Mr. Morris

The hon. Gentleman has no basis for the statement at the beginning of his supplementary question. There is a case now with the national insurance commissioner. We are not yet aware of the outcome of his consideration of that case, and we shall look with great interest at the outcome. It is the case of a constituent of my hon. Friend the Member for Derby, North (Mr. Whitehead). The hon. Gentleman can be well assured that we are giving anxious consideration to the matter and that we shall make a statement as soon as we know the outcome of the national insurance commissioner's consideration and decision.

Mr. Litterick

The House is well aware of the Minister's efforts to increase the take-up rate of these benefits, but has he read the document "Second-class Disabled", published by the Equal Rights for Disabled Women Campaign, which shows clearly and dramatically that there are many women who are receiving both mobility allowance and attendance allowance but who cannot get the invalidity allowance, not because they do not know that it exists but because of the way in which the Act has been drafted and is now being interpreted by my hon. Friend's civil servants throughout the country?

Mr. Morris

My hon. Friend is referring to the housewife's non-contributory invalidity pension. As he says, there are disabled housewives who receive both the attendance allowance and the mobility allowance but who have not sustained their claims to the HNCIP. I must emphasise that decisions are taken by the independent adjudicating authorities. I have been told by women's organisations that there is a strong case for amending the law. There will be resource implications there. Any decision in a particular case is for the independent adjudicating bodies. I am glad that my hon. Friends make their point about resources. There is no case whatever for hon. Members to ask us to cut public expenditure and then ask for more and more for their own constituents.

Mrs. Chalker

Can the Minister explain why, in the case of the HNCIP, there are many more successful appeals after first refusal than in the case of any other benefit? Does it not strike him as an indication that there is something wrong in the way in which the benefit is first considered, and ought he not to look again at the rules about incapacity to do housework?

Mr. Morris

The hon. Lady will remember that I consulted hon. Members on both sides about the new benefit before it was introduced. It has been put to me that there is a case for looking carefully at the number of successful appeals that there have been. I shall take great interest now in all appeals and look at the claim form for this benefit to see whether there is any further action which I should take.