Invalid Care Allowance

HC Deb 02 November 1987 vol 121 cc560-1W

Mr. John

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what was the total number of recipients of invalid care allowance at 16 October.

Mr. Scott

At 19 October, the closest date to 16 October for which information is available, there were 88,000 recipients of invalid care allowance.

Mr. John

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is his estimate of the cost to public funds of increasing the income disregard in respect of invalid care allowance to (a) 15 per week and (b) 17 per week.

Mr. Scott

I regret that the information on which to base an estimate could be extracted only at disproportionate cost.

Mr. John

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what steps he intends to take to shorten the delay in processing claims for invalid care allowance.

Mr. Scott

Additional resources have recently been devoted to processing claims and the average time taken to clear them is continuing to fall.