§ Baroness Jegerasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many married women have applied for invalid care allowance; how many claimants have been refused; and whether any change of date for admissibility of claims has been agreed.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Security (Baroness Trumpington)As at 23rd January 1987, the latest date for which information is available, 99,000 claims have been received from married women of which 8,000 have been rejected.
There is no deadline for applications from married women to receive invalid care allowance from current date, plus up to 12 months' arrears, subject to qualifying conditions being met. A deadline of 31st December 1986 was, however, fixed for claims attracting arrears back to 22nd December 1984, the date of implementation of the European Community's equal treatment directive. To ensure that as many people as possible were aware of this, we arranged an extensive publicity campaign and we have written to 400,000 attendance allowance claimants who are paid by computer.
When the decision to extend ICA to married women was announced last summer, we thought that six months would be sufficient time for these back-dated claims, and set the deadline accordingly. However, in view of representations made, and the rate at which claims were being received, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State announced on 22nd December 1986 that the deadline was being extended to 31st August 1987. We will also be writing to other attendance allowance beneficiaries who are paid by local offices over the next few months when their order books are renewed.