§ Mr. Rookerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the estimated cost of enabling married women, including cohabiting women, to qualify for the invalid care allowance.
§ Mr. RossiThe gross annual cost is estimated to be of the order of £95 million at the current rate of benefit. A net figure cannot be given as it is not possible to estimate the savings which would be achieved from the offset of supplementary benefit or of dependency increase at present in payment in respect of some of the women concerned.