Mr. R. C. Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will seek to increase the industrial rehabilitation allowances to ensure that persons previously receiving social security benefits 343W for long-term sickness do not suffer a fall in income when taking an industrial rehabilitation course.
§ Mr. Dudley SmithMy Department and the Department of Health and Social Security have been jointly examining industrial rehabilitation allowances and their relation to social security benefits to see whether it would be possible so to arrange matters that someone who has been receiving long-term sickness benefits need not incur a drop in income when he takes up a course of industrial rehabilitation. Discussions are still proceeding and no promise of an increase in rehabilitation allowances can be made at this stage.