§ Mr. Hicksasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list those benefits, both general and specific, for which blind persons are eligible together with the financial amounts.
Thousands Men Women All Number Per cent Number Per cent Number Per cent (1) All who reached retirement age and retired in the period 520 100 235 100 756 100 (2) Those who retired and had no entitlement to additional component to pension* 307 59 194 82 501 66 (3) Those who retired with an entitlement to additional component at the time of award 213 41 41 18 254 34 (4) Those in (3) above who retired and whose Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) was either equal to or greater than their additional component entitlement at the time of award 47 9 8 3 54 7 Note:
* The reason for no entitlement to additional component may be because (a) the total of contributions which were paid as employed persons in a particular year did not exceed the annual contribution at the lower earnings level, (b) they were self employed during the qualifying period or (c)
50W
§ Mr. RossiFollowing is the information:
Direct compensation for blindness or impaired vision
War disablement pension and additional allowances
Industrial disablement benefit and additional allowances
Note. These are payable for disablement arising from, respectively, service in the armed forces and industrial injury. Total blindness is assessed at the 100 per cent disablement rate, which is £48.30 a week.
General benefits of the social security scheme
Blindness or impaired vision may be a contributory factor in causing a person to qualify for:
- Benefit and Weekly Rate
- Unemployment benefit—£22.50
- Sickness benefit—£22.50
- Invalidity benefit—£28.35 (Invalidity allowance at the rate of £2, £4 or £6.20 may also be payable)
- Non-contributory invalidity pension £17.75
Attendance allowance—Higher rate £23.65, Lower rate£15.75 Supplementary benefit—The rate will depend on individual circumstances but an addition of £1.25 a week (2.50 for a couple both of whom are blind) is payable to a registered blind person receiving supplementary benefit.
Income Tax
There is an allowance of £360 (£720 for a married couple both of whom are blind) for registered blind people in addition to their other personal allowances.
Other services and concessions
Services and concessions available to blind and partially-sighted people from other agencies are described in Leaflet HB1, "Help for Handicapped People", a copy of which is in the Library of the House.