§ Mr. Reidasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what estimate he has made of the numbers of patients in Scottish psychiatric hospitals who have now claimed the non-contributory invalidity pension.
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§ Mr. OrmeMany of the patients in psychiatric hospitals receive contributory invalidity pension while they are of working age. Hospitals were asked to identify those who do not, and to claim noncontributory invalidity pension on their behalf, where the patient did not have a relative looking after his affairs and could not claim personally. By mid-November 1975, when payment of noncontributory invalidity pension began, claims had been made in respect of almost 7,000 such patients in Scottish hospitals. Since then there have been about a further 4,000 claims in all for non-contributory invalidity pension in Scotland, but I regret that it is not possible to say how many were in respect of hospital in-patients.