§ Mr. McCartneyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she has evidence that there are severely disabled people whose disabilities place them in need of a specialised vehicle with high profile and light steering; and if she will list particular disabilities where such a vehicle is often required to avoid groups of disabled people from being immobilised.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisThe special features mentioned by my hon. Friend have been found to be particularly advantageous for disabled drivers with limited ability to bend and those with weakness of the arms or hands respectively. These categories include disabled people who suffer from progressive stiffening of joints, such as ankylosing spondylitis, especially if they are above average height, and those with diseases such as muscular dystrophy which cause progressive weakness of the upper limbs.
§ Mr. Hannamasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what facilities, if any, will be provided to enable categories such as disabled mothers, haemophiliacs, etc., for whom Her Majesty's Government have already conceded that there is a need for a four-wheeled vehicle, to be provided with such a vehicle.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisThe present scheme only provides cars for those people in these categories who are able to drive. This has been described as a cruel anomaly by the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Mobility for the Disabled, which I understand represents 26 national organisations in this field.
Our new scheme will provide the mobility allowance not only for drivers, but also for non-drivers in these categories. The new beneficiaries will in include severely disabled children, who receive no benefit whatever at present.
To provide cars for all the disabled people with claims comparable to those 147W of people in the limited special groups would greatly increase the cost of the new scheme and would mean a corresponding cut-back in the mobility allowance for those outside the car arrangements.
§ Mr. Hannamasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she intends to place any more orders for the invalid tri-cycle; if so, how many will be ordered in 1976; and what was the corresponding figure for 1975.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisYes. Not to do so could immobilise some of the most severely disabled people. I will write to the hon. Member when the final decision about numbers has been taken. Contracts for the year ending 31st March 1976 totalled 2,750.
§ Mr. Hannamasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what was the number of successful applicants for the issue of four-wheeled cars to non-war disabled persons in the following categories in each year since 1st April 1972: (a) parents in charge of young children, (b) related persons in the same household, (c) haemophiliacs and (d) others.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisThe information is as follows:
1973 1974 1975 (a) Parents in charge of young children 494 422 366 (b) Related persons in same household 488* 618* 460* (c) Haemophiliacs 108 49 64 (d) Others Nil Nil Nil * These figures include blind people who do not themselves satisfy the eligibility criteria for a vehicle.
§ Mr. Hannamasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many people aged over 5 years and under retirement age are presently issued with each of the following: (a) wheelchair, including electrically propelled models, (b) an invalid tricycle and (c) private car allowance.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisThe information is as follows: (a) I regret that the information is not available, and I will write to the hon. Gentleman about this point; (b) and (c) while no precise figures are available, if we assume a retirement age of 65 148W for men and 60 for women, a sample analysis suggests figures of the order of 17,500 and 20,000 respectively for Great Britain.