§ Sir Hugh Rossiasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what progress is being made on considering the recommendations of the Oglesby report on the review of attendance allowance and mobility allowance procedures, and of medical adjudication; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. NewtonWe have already acted on two recommendations to speed up action on claims to these benefits under existing administrative arrangements. This has contributed to a reduction in clearance times for claims to attendance allowance and mobility allowance. I am grateful to the Department's officials at North Fylde central office and the social security regions for their efforts in achieving this improvement.
The report's main recommendations were for a recasting of the administrative and adjudication arrangements, including devolution of work to regional offices, greater use of the claimant's own general practitioner in mobility allowance cases, and a new role for the Attendance Allowance Board.
There were also two incidental recommendations for limited changes in benefit rules. One was to cease paying mobility allowance once the claimant had accumulated £1,000 in his hospital account, in cases where the hospital management team certified that the benefit had not been used, and was unlikely to be capable of being used, for the patients' benefit; this would replace the existing legal provision for withdrawing benefit where the recipient is incapable of benefiting from the allowance.
649WThe second proposal is that someone on the lower rate of attendance allowance whose condition deteriorates, thus making him eligible for the higher rate, should have the benefit backdated to the date of his application for a review only, instead of as at present, to the point when his condition deteriorated. This would bring it into line with the rules for an unsuccessful claimant who re-claims when his condition deteriorates and cannot have his benefit backdated before the date of the claim.
We felt that it would not be appropriate for Ministers to consider these longer-term proposals without affording opportunity for open public consultation. As I announced in answer to my hon. Friend on 17 November — [Vol. 48, c. 572] — we therefore placed the report in the Library of the House and sent copies to representative organisations with an invitation to comment by 14 December 1983.
A number of other organisations and individuals subsequently asked for copies, which were supplied and as I stated in answer to the right hon. Member for Manchester, Wythenshawe (Mr. Morris) on 19 December — [Vol. 51, c. 68] — we extended the deadline for comment to 15 January 1984. Following more recent interest, I am glad to extend it further to the end of February 1984.
No decisions will be taken until all such comments have been fully considered; and any decision on the rules concerning mobility allowance will be related to our general aim of encouraging the flexible use of patients' money to enhance the quality of life of the patients concerned, on which we expect shortly to issue for consultation revised draft guidance to health authorities.