§ Dr. OwenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) how much of the cost of all long-stay patients, respectively, for geriatric, mentally handicapped, mentally ill, and psychiatric patients, the National Health Service can claim back from social security;
(2) how much the National Health Service could claim back annually from social security if the same arrangements applied for claiming the cost of residence as apply in local authority residential homes and private residential homes;
(3) what would be the additional annual revenue to the National Health Service if patients whose incomes make them ineligible for social security payments were charged the cost of residence in long-stay hospitals.
§ Mr. PortilloNone. Social security is available only to individual claimants. The National Health Service, local authorities and independent residential care and nursing homes cannot claim any costs from social security. However, people in local authority and independent homes may be able to get help with charges from supplementary benefit. No data are available on which to base estimates of the amount of supplementary benefit which would be payable if health authorities were able to charge on the same basis as either local authorities or the independent sector.
I regret that no information is available centrally to identify the number of National Health Service patients in long-stay hospitals whose income would make them ineligible for income-related social security benefits.