§ Mr. Alfred Morrisasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the social security benefits for disabled people and their carers which sponsored immigrants and their carers may (a) claim and (b) not claim.
§ Mr. NewtonDisabled sponsored immigrants may claim benefits for disabled people subject to the same rules as other claimants. These rules include tests of presence in Great Britain as follows: for attendance allowance, 26 weeks out of 52 preceding claim; for mobility allowance, 52 weeks out of 18 months preceding claim; for severe disablement allowance, 168 of 196 qualifying days of incapacity. In each case the claimant also has to be present in Great Britain at the time the claim is to be made. There are also tests of ordinary residence and for severe disablement allowance the claimant must also have been resident 10 out of 20 years preceding the claim (or, if under 20, at least 10 years since birth).
The carer of a disabled sponsored immigrant may claim invalid care allowance subject to the same rules as any other carer.
Both disabled sponsored immigrants and their carers may claim supplementary benefit subject to the same rules as other disabled people and their carers. However, in the case of any sponsored immigrant, whether or not disabled, the sponsor is liable for the immigrant's maintenance and any supplementary benefit paid to the immigrant may be recoverable from the sponsor.
A sponsored immigrant who has been resident in Great Britain for 10 years after age 60 may qualify for a non-contributory retirement pension at age 80 or on completion of the residence test if later.
§ Mr. Alfred Morrisasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what would be the cost of transferring all current recipients of unemployability supplement to invalidity benefit and of abolishing unemployability supplement; if there are any circumstances in the future in which a person could under present legislation become entitled to unemployability supplement and not to invalidity benefit; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. NewtonThe White Paper "Reform of the Industrial Injuries Scheme" (Cmnd. 8402) envisaged the abolition of unemployability supplement, with existing beneficiaries being transferred to invalidity benefit. The cost would be minimal.
There are two, albeit rare, circumstances in which unemployability supplement would be payable while invalidity benefit would not. Firstly, invalidity benefit cannot be paid after deemed retirement age (70 for men and 65 for women), whereas unemployability supplement continues in payment irrespective of age. Secondly, earnings greater than £23.50 in one week would remove entitlement to invalidity benefit for that week, but would not affect unemployability supplement provided earnings for the year were not above £1,222.