HC Deb 04 December 1986 vol 106 cc733-4W
Mr. Coombs

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement on the operation of the Asian mother and baby campaign.

Mr. Lyell

Administration of housing benefit, including assessment of claims, is the responsibility of local authorities who administer housing benefit, and information is not available centrally on the number of incorrect assessments.

Mr. Tony Banks

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many applications he has received in each of the years 1977 to 1985 for the treatment of a claim for supplementary benefit as a claim for (a) attendance allowance and (b) invalid care allowance pursuant to Regulation 9(5) of the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations; and how many such applications were successful in each of those years.

Mr. Major

I regret that information is not kept in the form requested. The available information relates to requests for a claim to supplementary benefit to be treated as a claim also for attendance or invalid care allowance under Regulation 9(5) of the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1979, and to requests to treat a document as a claim to attendance or invalid care allowance under Regulation 4 of those regulations. The available information is as follows:

Mrs. Currie

The campaign is a pilot project involving 16 district health authorities in 10 different areas. Its main feature is the employment of "link-workers", women conversant in English and at least one Asian language, whose role is to help overcome linguistic and cultural barriers between pregnant women from the Indian sub-continent and health professionals. The first link-worker scheme began in November 1984 and the most recent in April 1986 and for the first two years salaries are paid from special central funding. Although the professional evaluation will not be completed until mid-1988, early reports are encouraging and several authorities have already decided to continue the scheme when central funding ends. We hope others will consider developing similar schemes.

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