§ 25. Mr. HayesTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what plans the Government have to tax benefits for people with disabilities. [42952]
§ Mr. DenhamWe have made it clear in our Green Paper that Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance will remain national and universal benefits and as such they will not be subject to a means test. Taxation is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Chancellor, but we have no current plans to tax DLA: there were no such proposals in the Green Paper. Equally, there are no plans to tax Income Support (the income-related benefit paid to many people with disabilities) War Pensions or Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit.
470W
§ 30. Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if she will make a statement on the number of people with some level of disability in the United Kingdom; and how many of them receive state benefits. [42957]
§ Mr. DenhamThere is no generally agreed formula for defining disabled people. The Disability Survey suggests that there are some 8.6 million disabled adults in private households. The numbers who receive benefits as a result of their disability are shown in the table.
Benefit Recipients1,6 Date Income Support 2,4,5892,000 August 1997 Disability Working Allowance 14,813 September 1997 Disability Living Allowance 2,096,000 February 1998 Attendance Allowance 1,279,000 February 1998 Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit 3272,000 7— War Disablement Pensions 258,363 April 1998 Severe Disablement Allowance 369,000 November 1997 Incapacity Benefit 1,701,000 November 1997 Jobseeker's Allowance 17,000 August 1997 1 These figures do not take into account any benefit overlap 2 Numbers for Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance, Incapacity Benefit and Severe Disablement Allowance are rounded to the nearest thousand 3 Figures are taken from a 5 per cent. sample except Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit which is 10 per cent., Disability Working Allowance and War Disablement Pension which are 100 per cent. 4 The Income Support figure excludes cases who transferred to Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance with effect from October 1996 5 Income Support and Jobseeker's Allowance are based on claims receiving disability premium when either the claimant or partner is disabled 6 All figures are for United Kingdom except War Disablement Pensions which is United Kingdom plus Overseas, Severe Disablement Allowance, Incapacity Benefit and Jobseeker's Allowance are for Great Britain 7 Figures for Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit are for Great Britain at April 1997 and Northern Ireland figures are at February 1998