§ Mr. Iain Millsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what his policy is towards the payment of all supplementary benefits to mentally handicapped people who are beneficiaries of trust funds.
§ Mrs. ChalkerI understand that my hon. Friend has in mind the effect in these cases of the £2,000 capital cutoff rule.
There are no special provisions for the mentally handicapped as such. The provisions relating to trust funds generally are contained in regulations 4(7) and 4(8) of the Supplementary Benefit (Resources) Regulations 1980 (SI 1980 No. 1300); these regulations make provision for continuance of the law as it was before 24 November 1980 and of the practice of the former Supplementary Benefits Commission. The policy underlying the regulations is that, since supplementary benefit is a "last resort" benefit