§ Mr. Terry Davisasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what are the latest estimates of (a) the number of patients claiming exemption, remission or repayment of optical and dental charges in the course of a year, (b) the number of claims made on each of the grounds on which entitlement can arise and (c) the number of successful claims in each category.
§ Mr. Geoffrey FinsbergInformation about the number of patients claiming exemption from or remission of charges is not collected.
Figures relating to number of courses of dental treatment are as follows:
Number of courses provided in 1981 to patients claiming: Millions (England) exemption (a) children and young people 10.9 (b) expectant and nursing mothers 0.9 automatic remission (a) people on supplementary benefit or Family Income Supplement 0.9 (b) people receiving free milk and vitamins or free prescriptions on low income grounds remission on application 0.1 Complete figures of unsuccessful claims are not available.
In addition, it is estimated that in 1981 nearly 800,000 optical charges were remitted in whole or in part (England). I regret that these cannot be apportioned between the categories in which entitlement to exemption or remission of optical charges can arise.