§ Lord Swinfenasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they accept the Disablement Income Group's figures for the extra costs of disability as being close to the true extra costs encountered by disabled people than the equivalent figures presented in OPCS Disability Surveys Report 2.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Social Security (Lord Henley)DIG do not claim that their survey is representative of all disabled people. While their findings on the extra costs of disability were much higher than those found by OPCS, the people surveyed by DIG were much more likely to be receiving disability benefits than those in the OPCS survey.
§ Lord Swinfenasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will undertake research to determine the reasons why the figures in the OPCS Disability Surveys Report 2 for the extra costs of disability are so much lower than those given in the two recent Disablement Income Group reports Being disabled costs more than they said, and Short Changed by Disability.
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§ Lord HenleyWe do not consider this necessary. DIG do not claim that the survey on which their reports are based is representative of all disabled people. The OPCS surveys, which were carried out in consultation with experts in the field of disability, covered a much wider sample of 10,000 disabled people.
§ Lord Swinfenasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether in any future changes in benefits for chronically sick and disabled people, they will be guided by the disability extra costs figures derived from the research of the Disablement Income Group in Short Changed by Disability, and not those from the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS) Disability Surveys Report 2.
§ Lord HenleyMy right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Social Security has encouraged comments on the OPCS survey findings and will consider the DIG report closely. However, the survey on which that report is based covers only 87 disabled people, as compared with the OPCS survey, which covers 10,000 disabled people.
§ Lord Swinfenasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether, in the light of the latest research by the Disablement Income Group reported in Short Changed by Disability, they will now review social security provision for chronically sick and disabled people.
§ Lord HenleyWe have received a copy of the DIG report and will study its findings carefully. We do not propose to undertake a further review of social security provision for chronically sick and disabled people. It is already five years since the Government commissioned the OPCS surveys of the circumstances of disabled people, and a formal review similar to the social security review in 1984-5 would delay important changes unnecessarily. We have set out the fundamental lines of our proposed response to the OPCS survey reports in the Command PaperThe Way Ahead: Benefits for Disabled People laid before Parliament on 10th January. We welcome views on these proposals.