§ Mr. HannamTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what action he plans to take following the recommendation made by the Social Services Committee 179W in its ninth report, "Community Care: Social Security for Disabled People" that the independent living fund be provided with additional resources specifically to collect information about characteristics of application, to and awards from the fund;
(2) what action he plans to take following the recommendation contained in the Social Services Committee's ninth report "Community Care: Social Security for Disabled People" that the Government conduct and publish on-going research on the actual and potential costs of disability in conjunction with organisations representing disabled people;
(3) what action he plans to take following the recommendation made by the Social Services Committee in its ninth report "Community Care: Social Security for Disabled People" that the Government publish details of work on models using a points system as the basis of a comprehensive disability income so that the problems identified by these models may be examined by other interested groups.
§ Mr. ScottWe are in the process of examining and considering the contents of the report and we will be publishing our response in due course.
§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he has received a copy of the Disablement Income Group's report "Short Changed by Disability"; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. ScottWe have received a copy of the DIG report and considered it carefully. DIG does not itself claim that the results of its survey of only 87 disabled people are a fair representation of the needs of all disabled people. In drawing up our proposals for the reform of disability benefits, we have had the benefit both of the OPCS surveys of disability which had a sample of 10,000 people and a follow-up survey based on the family expenditure survey.