§ Mr. Awdryasked the Attorney-General whether he will consider amending the Legal Aid Scheme so that disablement benefit and sickness benefit are in future disregarded in assessing income of applicants.
The Attorney-GeneralDisablement benefit is disregarded by the Supplementary Benefits Commission in assessing the disposable income of an applicant for legal aid to the extent of a maximum of £2 a week. Attendance allowance, constant attendance allowance and exceptionally severe disablement allowance, which are increases in the basic disablement pension, are already excluded in full. My noble Friend has no proposals at present to amend the regulations to allow for sickness benefit to be disregarded in assessing the income of applications. In accordance with Rule 4(a) of the schedule, £104 of an applicant's income is always disregarded.