§ Mr. Rookerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he considered increasing the blindness addition to supplementary benefit for November 1981, in view of the decision to increae the tax allowance for working blind persons.
§ Mr. RossiYes, but it was decided not to make an increase.
While we are continuing the blindness addition at the present rate, this special provision is an anomaly in that the aim of the supplementary benefit scheme, where there is disability, is to concentrate on needs arising from it rather than on the disability itself. However, most blind people qualify for the long-term scale rate and have received the substantial boost which has gone to all long-term beneficiaries in recent years. Moreover, blind non-householders aged over 18 receive the equivalent of the householder scale rate, and as a result of the changes we made in the supplementary benefits scheme last November, couples both of whom are blind now receive a blindness addition of £2.50 extra per week instead of £2.05.