§ Mr. Summersasked the Minister of Health in what circumstances public assistance authorities claim reimbursement 540W for relief granted in the preceding 12 months; and how the exercise of this right is reconciled with the normal practice of disregarding certain capital assets?
§ Mr. E. BrownWhere any person in receipt of relief has in his possession or belonging to him any money or valuable security for money the public assistance authority may take so much of the money or the produce of the security as will reimburse them for the amount expended on the relief of that person during the last 12 months. This power is one which it is the duty of the authority to exercise with regard to the circumstances of the case, but they would not normally reimburse themselves from capital assets which, in granting relief, they had disregarded or treated as equivalent to the appropriate weekly income.