§ 29. Mr. Andrew F. Bennettasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many people are ineligible for supplementary benefit at the short-term rate, would be eligible for it at the long-term rate on grounds of need, but are ineligible because they have not been on the short-term rate for 12 months.
§ Mr. NewtonTo qualify for supplementary benefit, a claimant's requirements, measured by the appropriate scale rate laid down by Parliament, must exceed his resources. All supplementary allowance claimants, except the unemployed aged under 60, become eligible for the long-term scale rate after they have been receiving supplementary allowance, assessed on the short-term rate, for a year. There are, however, people whose resources exceed the short-term scale rates, though they would not exceed the corresponding long-term rate; because they do not qualify for the former, they can never qualify for the latter. I regret that it would be disproportionately expensive in computer time to provide a full estimate of the number of people who may be affected, but in the group principally concerned, some 70,000 people receiving invalidity benefit would gain if periods in receipt of incapacity benefits counted towards title for the long-term rate of supplementary benefit.
We should like to resolve the problem of the "invalidity trap" but cannot see our way to this as yet because of the substantial benefit and staff cost. We did, however, remove it in November 1980 for 16 and 17-year-olds in receipt of non-contributory invalidity pension by enabling them to count periods in receipt of the pension towards the qualifying period for the long-term rate.