§ Mr. HannamTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many additional claimants would qualify for the disability working allowance if the functional test were applied for initial claims for those not receiving a694W quailfying benefit; and if he will estimate the numbers and net cost in each category for (a) claimants working in receipt of no benefit, (b) claimants working in receipt of income support and earnings, (c) claimants working and receiving housing benefit and/or community charge benefit, (d) claimants not working in receipt of income support without the disability premium, (e) claimants not working in receipt of unemployment benefit with no income support addition, (f) people not working and receiving no benefit and (g) people receiving family credit.
§ Mr. ScottEstimates of the number of people who might claim disability working allowance (DWA) can be only tentative since they depend on assumptions about how availability of the benefit might influence behaviour. We do not believe that the test of functional disability as proposed would be a suitable alternative to the requirement to be or to have been receiving a long-term incapacity or disability benefit. However, our best estimate is that if claimants were able to qualify by satisfying the test of functional disability alone, the DWA case load would be increased by about 200,000 and the cost by roughly £200 million net of other benefit savings. It is not possible to estimate with confidence the numbers or net cost in the categories (a) to (g).