§ Mr. LathamTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security why Miss A., a constituent of the hon. Member for Rutland and Melton, referred to in the letter from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary, the hon. Member for Fareham dated 11 November reference PO(35)2487/23, is required to apply for jobs regularly despite being unable to obtain employment because of her son's disabilities; and why she cannot be issued with a permanent order book.
§ Mr. Peter LloydSocial security legislation requires that an able-bodied adult should be available and looking for work as a condition of receiving benefit. However, for some people this rule would be inappropriate and so there are exceptions to it. One of these exemptions applies to a person who is looking after a person in receipt of attendance allowance, and Miss A comes into this category during the school holidays when she cares for her 19-year-old son. The payment of benefit by order book is not possible when Miss A is required to register for work, and becomes so only for the holiday periods when she cares for her son.
§ Mr. LathamTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security why Miss A., reference PO(35)2487/23, received no order book over the Christmas holidays, although she had previously notified the social security office in advance of the dates of her handicapped son's holiday.
§ Mr. Peter LloydOver the Christmas period Miss A. continued to receive her full entitlement to benefit from the unemployment benefit office because she continued to register as available for work.
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§ Mr. LathamTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security whether, in making a decision over Miss A., reference PO(35)2487/23, he took account of the fact that the school holidays of her handicapped son are significantly different from those in Leicestershire.
§ Mr. Peter LloydNo. The relative lengths of school holidays are not relevant when considering the question of Miss A.'s entitlement to benefit, although they could affect the method of payment adopted by the local office.
All recipients of mobility allowance: average extra expenditure on travel1 Severity category2 1–2 3–4 5–6 7–8 9–10 1–10 (Standard deviation) A. Average weekly extra expenditure on travel Pensioners (£) 1— 1.70 2.80 2.80 1.80 2.40 (3.80) Non pensioners (£) 2.30 3.40 3.60 3.70 2.30 3.20 (5.30) All disabled adults (£) 2.60 2.90 3.40 3.40 2.20 3.00 (4.90) B. Proportion with extra expenditure on travel Pensioners (per cent) 1— 43 53 52 37 46 Non-pensioners (per cent.) 45 60 50 50 36 48 All disabled adults (per cent.) 43 54 51 50 36 47 C. Base: Sample numbers of mobility allowance recipients Pensioners 21 40 43 50 41 196 Non-pensioners 53 87 111 121 101 473 All disabled adults 74 127 154 172 142 669 1 Base too small to show statistics. 2 Overall measure of severity constructed by OPCS to classify people with different numbers and types of disability (category 1 least severe, category 10 most severe) Part A of the table shows extra expenditure averaged over all recipients of the relevant benefit, irrespective of whether they actually reported extra expenditure: sample numbers are too small to compute a reliable average confined to those who reported extra expenditure. Part B shows the proportion of those who reported extra expenditure.