§ Mrs. Millie Millerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services why family and social factors are not taken into account in deciding whether a disabled person with a child over 14 years of age shall have the continued use of a four-wheel car.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisThe vehicle scheme arrangements, to which my hon. Friend refers, were superseded on 1st January, 1976, by the mobility allowance scheme. The new scheme provides cash help for disabled people, including disabled mothers looking after young children equally for those who can drive and those who cannot. The old scheme had regard to family and social factors in enabling a disabled mother who could drive to be provided with a car instead of an invalid tricycle if she had sole charge of a young child. Any mother who was issued with a car before 1st January 1976 is able to keep it until the child is 14—as was the case under the old scheme—but in practice she is allowed to retain the use of the car thereafter until it wears out.
My hon. Friend has written to me about the circumstances of an individual case and I shall be replying to her as soon as possible.
§ Mrs. Millie Millerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what financial allowances are made to assist with the capital cost of a vehicle to those in receipt only of social security benefit.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisDisabled people who qualify for the mobility allowance can use it in this way. With this in mind, hire-purchase restrictions on cars were492W recently relaxed for mobility allowance beneficiaries. I am in touch with the Central Council for the Disabled, which is looking into other possibilities of helping disabled people who wish to use the mobility allowance toward the purchase of a vehicle.
§ Mrs. Millie Millerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what steps she takes to ensure that every application for an invalid car is considered on its merits, bearing in mind that each person suffering disability is an exception to the rule of normal physical mobility.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisApart from the special war pensioner arrangements, invalid tricycles are now issued to new applicants only if they meet the statutory criteria for award of a mobility allowance and ask for a tricycle as an alternative benefit. To ensure that claims are considered impartially on their merits, decisions on whether the criteria are satisfied have been entrusted to independent authorities who take their decisions in the light of medical evdence. There are appeal rights which broadly follow those under the industrial injuries scheme.