§ Mr. Laneasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is his estimate of the number of old people living below supplementary benefit level who are not in receipt of any pension or are in receipt of a National Insurance pension, respectively.
§ Mr. O'MalleyOf an estimated 300,000 old people with no title to a retirement pension in June, 1968, about 180,000 were receiving supplementary pensions. No estimate is available of the number living below supplementary benefit level. Any such person is, of course, entitled to claim a supplementary pension. With regard to retirement pensioners, I would refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Walthamstow, West (Mr. Silvester) on 15th December.—[Vol. 793, c. 904–5.]
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§ Mr. Laneasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many voluntary social workers there are in the country; how many there have been in each year since 1964; how many he estimates there will be in each year up to 1975; how many of these are concerned with care for the old; and what proportion of the Government work-load is concerned with the old.
§ Dr. John DunwoodyInformation about past and present numbers of voluntary Social Workers is not centrally available and I cannot predict future numbers. The proportion of the Government workload concerned with the old is not readily quantifiable.
§ Mr. Laneasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what is his estimate of the number of old people in all kinds of residential homes provided by local authorities; and what is the average cost per head per week;
(2) what is his estimate of the total number of old people in residential care; how many of these are estimated to be in homes established by voluntary organisations; how many are in local authority-operated homes; and how many in hospitals.
§ Dr. John DunwoodyOn 31st December, 1968, the number of people in England and Wales over 65 years old in residential care (as opposed to hospital care) was 126,667. 16,747 were in registered homes run privately for profit, 23,050 in homes provided by voluntary bodies, and 86,869 in accommodation which was the responsibility of local authorities. In 1968–69 the average gross cost per resident per week of local authority houses was about £13.
It is estimated that there are about 140,000 in-patients aged 65 or over in hospital at any one time, but many of these are there for short periods of treatment only.
§ Mr. Laneasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many residential homes and day centres for old people he estimates there will be in each year up to 1975.
§ Dr. John DunwoodyThe plans for the health and welfare services of local authorities in England presented in summary in Cmnd. 3022 provide for 2,625 473W residential homes and 296 day centres for the elderly by the end of the financial year 1970–71 and for 3,271 homes and 403 centres by the end of the financial year 1975–76. Figures for intermediate years are not available. The extent to which these plans are realised depends on the resources which can be devoted to their achievement.
§ Mr. Laneasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what is his estimate of the number of house-bound old people; how many are estimated to have a telephone; and what proportion of all old people are estimated to have telephones;
(2) what is his estimate of the number of disabled people not registered with local authorities, and of the percentage of the unregistered over 65 years of age.
§ Dr. John DunwoodyIn 1967 23 per cent. of households in Great Britain of which the head was 65 years of age or more were estimated to have telephones. The other information asked for should be among that provided by the survey of disability carried out for my Department by the Government Social Survey Department.
§ Mr. Laneasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many day centres there ire for old people; how many people they serve; and how much they cost in total.
§ Dr. John DunwoodyOn 31st March, 1965 local authorities in England and Wales were providing 115 day centres for the elderly. Loan sanction has since been given for 99 day centres to cost about £2.0 million. Attendance and other cost figures are not centrally available.
§ Mr. Laneasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is his estimate of the percentage of working time spent by health visitors in looking after the old; if he is satisfied with this proportion of time; and if he will make a statement.
§ Dr. John DunwoodyI regret that information in the form requested is not available, because the time spent on each visit is not known, but in 1968 health visitors in England and Wales visited 357,997 persons aged 65 or over (an in-474W crease of 29 per cent. since 1964) and about 3.5 million children aged 5 or under.
I should like to see still more visits to the elderly and I expect that the closer collaboration of health visitor, home nurse and family doctor, through attachment schemes or otherwise, will produce this result by enabling the health needs of the elderly to be more readily identified.