§ Mr. Terry Walkerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if her Department will provide help for disabled people who own their own cars, and who have been hit by the latest increase in car tax.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisFor people sufficiently disabled to be eligible for help under the Department's invalid vehicle scheme there is exemption from paying vehicle excise duty on cars registered in their name which they themselves drive or in which they have to be driven by a full-time constant attendant.
§ Mr. David Steelasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will take steps to enable her Department to make 73W up a full wage for those who are partially disabled but still competent to perform limited tasks for an employer.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisThe complex problems of disabled people in employment were touched upon in paragraphs 46 to 51 of "Social Security Provision for Chronically Sick and Disabled People" (House of Commons Paper No. 276 of 1974). I shall be considering with ministerial colleagues how best to follow up what was said in paragraph 51. Mean-while, there are already facilities in sheltered workshops for disabled people who, by the nature or severity of their disablement, are otherwise unlikely to obtain and retain employment. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Employment is also examining, in the context of wider consultations of his Department's consultative document on sheltered employment, the possibility of extending enclave arrangements under which supervised groups of severely disabled people are employed in ordinary conditions. The advantages and disadvantages of directly subsidising employers to employ disabled people were discussed in a consultative document on the quota scheme issued by my right hon. Friend's Department. The hon. Gentleman may like to know that the idea attracted little support