§ Baroness Jegerasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many people are in receipt of the blind allowance of £1.25 a week and how much that should be in terms of today's prices taking into account inflation since that figure was set; and what assistance is available for blind people who are not on supplementary benefit.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Security (Lord Glenarthur)The final results of the Annual Statistical Enquiry for December 1983 are not yet available. Provisional figures suggest that the number of supplementary benefit claimants receiving the £1.25 weekly addition for blindness in December 1983 was about 36,000. The blindness addition was set at its present level of £1.5s (£1.25) in November 1969. On the basis of the index currently used for up-rating supplementary benefit—i.e., the retail price index, less the housing costs component—if it had been maintained in real terms at this level its value expressed in terms of October 1984 prices would be £6.20.
Blind single people receiving supplementary benefit who are aged 18 or over and are not householders (and those aged 16–17 who have a dependent child) receive an extra addition to their weekly benefit to bring their scale rate up to the level of that of a householder. Blind people on supplementary benefit may also qualify for weekly additions for special needs such as extra heating, high laundry costs or domestic assistance. In the housing benefit scheme, special help is available for disabled people, including blind people.
The main social security benefits for disabled people are based not on particular types of disability but on the needs to which the disability giverise: blind people are generally eligible for these benefits on the same conditions as other claimants.
Blind people are also entitled to a special income tax allowance of £360 a year. Other concessions include reduced TV licence fees and certain postal concessions.