§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what would be the numbers of claimants, and the cost, of extending the mobility allowance to: all physically handicapped children aged from 2 to 5 years, all mentally handicapped children aged from 2 to 5 years and all mentally handicapped people aged from 5 to 65 years, respectively.
§ Mr. PrenticeIt is broadly estimated that about 4,000 children aged 2 to 4 595W inclusive might qualify for mobility allowance under the present criteria, at a cost of approximately £2½ million a year. Children aged 5 are already included in the scheme. I regret there is no reliable information on the number of mentally handicapped children under age 5.
To extend the allowance to all mentally handicapped people, regardless of whether they were able to walk, could involve 140,000 people at an extra cost approaching £90 million a year.