§ Mr. Alfred MorrisTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if, pursuant to his answer of 6 February to the right hon. Member for Manchester, Wythenshawe,Official Report, column 624, he will publish in the Official Report the detailed information about benefits for disabled people which the right hon. Member requested from him.
§ Mr. ScottThe available information is as follows.
All the benefits provided specifically for disabled people more than retained their value between November 1979 and April 1988 with real increases ranging from 0.6 per cent. to 9.4 per cent.
I regret that information about the number of disabled people who lost free prescriptions and free school meals is not available.
It is estimated that about 30,000 income support recipients getting the disability and higher pensioner premiums will still require transitional protection after the uprating in April 1989; the vast majority of disabled people will get an increase.
Most disabled people on housing benefit gained or saw no change in their benefit as a result of the April 1988 reforms. About 50,000 are estimated to have lost some or all of their benefit.
Transitional protection was introduced for vulnerable groups of claimants to restrict their losses as a result of the 1988 reforms to £2.50 per week. This included disabled people who qualify for the disability premium or who qualified for the handicapped needs allowance in the old housing benefit scheme. Those dependent on social security benefits will still see an overall increase in their benefit income after the transitional payments have been 777W reduced by £2 per week in April 1989. Special arrangements have been made for those who would not otherwise do so.