§ Mr. GoodladTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services, further to the statement made on 18 December 1987 about special payments to certain social security recipients following the discovery of the error in the calculation of the retail price index, what plans he has to compensate people who retire or become widowed between the time the special payments are made, in the first week of February and April 1989.
§ Mr. ScottIn the case of individuals whose benefits become payable after the special payments are made in the first week in February, we have decided not only to compensate those who retire or become widowed, but to make payments to broadly the same additional groups as received the £8/£5 special payments. The only exceptions will be those who have not lost as a result of the error in the retail prices index: married women with retirement pensions based on their husbands' national insurance records, and those people who receive invalid care allowance, severe disablement allowance or the lower rate of attendance allowance.
Pensioners and others who enter after the first week in February one of the groups covered by the £8 special payments will receive a special payment of £5.50. In respect of mobility allowance, the special payment will be £3. We will aim to make these payments as soon as practicable after individuals come on to benefit.
There will be a cut-off point beyond which individuals entering the affected groups will not be eligible to receive special payments. This point will be the benefit week which ends on 2 October.
Special arrangements will be made to give extra compensation to severely disabled war and industrially injured pensioners who will lose significantly more than other groups.