HC Deb 26 February 1990 vol 168 cc60-2W
Mrs. Margaret Ewing

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how his recent proposals on disability benefits will affect people who are blind or partially sighted.

Mr. Scott

A number of proposals set out in "The Way Ahead: benefits for disabled people" (Cm 917) will benefit people who are blind or partially sighted. The new disability allowance, which will extend help to less severely disabled people of working age and below, will benefit people with seeing disabilities who have mobility or care needs. Blind people disabled early in life who have not been able to build up a national insurance contributions record will gain from the introduction of an age-related addition in severe disablement allowance; and those who are partially capable of work will be helped by the new disability employment credit, which will make it easier for disabled people to take up or remain in work. Blind people will also benefit from the following changes to be introduced in April: the extension of mobility allowance to people who are both deaf and blind; the increase, over and above the normal annual increase, in the adult disability premium in income support and housing benefit by £1 for a single person and £1.60 for a couple; and the more than doubling of the disabled child premium in income support and housing benefit, from £6.50 to £15.40 per week. Registered blind people automatically qualify for the disability premiums.

Mrs. Margaret Ewing

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many hours of work and what level of earnings were taken to indicate potential entitlement when his Department analysed Office of Population Censuses and Surveys data for potential recipients of disability employment credit.

Mr. Scott

We propose that the structure of the disability employment credit should follow the main features of family credit, but precise details are being considered. The tentative estimate of 50,000 DEC recipients referred to in "The Way Ahead. Benefits for disabled people" (Cm 917) is consistent with a range of possible entitlement criteria for the number of hours worked and level of earnings.

Mrs. Margaret Ewing

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list those disability organisations he has invited to discuss "The Way Ahead" with him.

Mr. Scott

We have sent a copy of "The Way Ahead: benefits for disabed people" (Cm 917) to the following organisations, inviting their comments:

  • Access Committee for England;
  • Age Concern;
  • ARMS;
  • Arthritis Care;
  • Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus;
  • Association to Combat Huntingdon's Chorea;
  • British Diabetic Association;
  • British Epilepsy Association;
  • Centre on Environment for the Handicapped;
  • Disability Alliance;
  • Disability Benefits Consortium;
  • Disabled Living Foundation;
  • Disablement Income Group;
  • Help the Aged;
  • Joint Committee on Mobility for Disabled;
  • Leonard Cheshire Foundation;
  • MENCAP;
  • MIND;
  • Motor Neurone Disease Association;
  • Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland;
  • National Council for Carers;
  • Outset;
  • Parkinson's Disease Association;
  • RADAR;
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  • RNIB;
  • RNID:
  • Scottish Council on Disability;
  • Scottish Society for the Mentally Handicapped;
  • SENSE—National Deaf-Blind and Rubella Association;
  • Spastics Society;
  • Spinal Injuries Association; and
  • Wales Council for the Disabled

We will welcome comments from all interested organisations in the course of our detailed work on the proposals, in particular on the new disability allowance and disability employment credit.

Mrs. Margaret Ewing

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what plans he has to assist disabled pensioners.

Mr. Scott

Measures introduced last October targeted £200 million additional help on less well-off elderly and disabled pensioners. These changes mean that 2.6 million pensioners will gain, by up to £2.50 a week in the case of single people and £3.50 a week for couples. Government proposals to improve the structure of disability benefits set out in "The Way Ahead: benefits for disabled people" (Cm. 917) will also help disabled pensioners by removing the upper age limit for paying for help with mobility needs and extending attendance allowance to people who are terminally ill without any waiting period.

Mrs. Margaret Ewing

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what criteria his Department has used in estimating that 140,000 people will benefit from the lower rate of the proposed disability allowance.

Mr. Scott

I refer the hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Member for Belfast, South (Rev. M. Smyth) on 31 January 1990 at column193.

Mr. Wareing

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people are in receipt of mobility allowance; how many have been disqualified from receiving the allowance during the past year; and for what reasons the allowance has been dropped.

Mr. Scott

[holding answer 19 February 1990]: The estimated average number receiving mobility allowance during 1989–90 is 615,000. During 1989, 449 recipients of the allowance ceased to qualify because of an improvement in walking ability; 272 because they no longer satisfied the residence and presence conditions; and 82 because they were undergoing imprisonment or detention in legal custody.