HC Deb 07 June 1988 vol 134 cc574-5W
Mrs. Beckett

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what he anticipates will be the time scale for the review of disability benefits the Government expects to undertake following publication of the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys survey reports; and what arrangements for consultations it will include

Mr. Scott

When all the relevant results of the surveys are available, we shall consider what conclusions can be drawn from them concerning benefits for disabled people. We have not yet decided what form that consideration will take, but will make an announcement in due course about consultation with interested organisations on the implications of the survey results.

Mrs. Beckett

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services whether there will be any exemptions other than for one registered disabled to one eight-week limit for the payment of the bridging allowance; and whether young people who are not incapable of work but unable through disability to find a suitable YTS place will be able to claim income support after September.

Mr. Portillo

Payment of bridging allowance will be limited to a maximum of eight weeks in any period of 12 months in all cases except where a young person is registered disabled.

The Government have guaranteed a youth training scheme place to all young people under 18 who are capable of work, whether disabled or not. We cannot envisage a situation in which a young person would be too disabled to take up a YTS place and yet would be judged by the adjudicating authorities to be insufficiently disabled to be entitled to income support.

Mrs. Beckett

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services when he expects to publish the first part of the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys survey of disablement; what areas will be covered by this and the further reports; and what the timetable is for publication of the further report.

Mr. Scott

There are four surveys covering adults and children separately, with each group further separated between private households and communal establishments. Fieldwork for the last—children in communal establishments—was completed earlier this year.

We hope to publish the first report early in September. This will contain information about the overall prevalence of disability in adults and also report on the methods and concepts used in all the surveys, including the approach taken to the scaling of severity of disability. The second report, containing information about the financial circumstances of disabled adults, is likely to be published in November. Further reports will follow in 1988 and 1989 to cover disabled adults' use of services (including communal establishments), and to provide the same general range of information about children as about adults.