§ Mr. Hardyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services by what date he expects the processing of claims for invalid care allowance by married women to be completed; and what proportion of such claims have now been dealt with.
§ Mr. MajorAs at 13 February, some 103,000 claims to invalid care allowance had been received from married women of which about 47,000 had been decided. The remainder, which are at various stages of processing and include cases where further information is awaited from claimants, will be cleared as soon as possible. The question implies a final date for clearance of all claims to invalid care allowance from married women, but because claims are still coming in and will continue to do so for the indefinite future, no such date can be set.