Mr. R. C. Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many people he estimates will be better off receiving supplementary benefit rather than rent and rate rebates consequent upon the removal of the electricity discount scheme; how many extra staff his Department will need in order to undertake the necessary individual calculations; and how soon he expects these calculations to be completed.
§ Mrs. Chalker[pursuant to her reply, 19 November 1979, c. 28]: I regret that such estimates are not available. The best available figures relate to people receiving rent rebates, rent allowances or rate rebates in 1977 whose net resources were within £1 of their basic supplementary benefit level. There were about 240,000 of these aged 75 or over and about 20,000 families with a child under five where the head of the family was not in full-time work. It is not known how many of these people would in fact have been entitled to supplementary benefit and become better off, so the figures can be regarded as no more than a broad indication of the possible size of the field.
In so far as the changes lead to increased work for the Department's local offices, this will be reflected through the operation of the normal staff complementing process.
599W
Mr. R. C. Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Social Services, how many people he estimates will be better off receiving supplementary benefit rather than rent and rate rebate consequent upon the elimination of the parental income scale for school meals envisaged in the Education (No. 2) Bill; and how many extra staff his Department will need to undertake the necessary individual calculations.
§ Mrs. Chalker[pursuant to her reply, 19 November 1979, c. 28]: I regret that such estimates are not available. In so far as the changes lead to increased work for the Department's local offices, this
Total Urgent Non-urgent Royal General Surgery … … … … 768 — 768 ENT … … … … 51 — 51 Traumatic and Orthopaedic … … … 75 — 75 Radiotherapy … … … … 9 — 9 Thoracic Surgery … … … … 8 — 8 Dental Surgery … … … … 126 — 126 New Cross General Surgery … … … … 580 — 580 ENT … … … … 254 1 253 Traumatic and Orthopaedic … … … 521 3 518 Neurology … … … … 16 — 16 Urology … … … … 108 — 108 Gynaecology … … … … 463 14 449 General Medicine … … … … 7 — 7 Geriatrics … … … … 16 2 14 Mental Illness … … … … 54 9 45 Wolverhampton and Midland Ophthalmology* … … … … 1,328 218 1,110 Totals: 4,384 247 4,137 * This is a regional service with a catchment population of about one million. A three-tier waiting list exists; of the 218 patients shown as urgent only a small proportion are considered to be either medically or surgically urgent, and these cases are always given dates for inpatient admission. The remainder, termed "priority", are admitted within three to five months.