§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what would be the cost of(a) extending invalid care allowance to people caring for someone on lower rate care component, (b) abolishing the waiting period in disability living allowance or reducing it to two months, (c) extending the linking rule in disability working allowance from eight months to two years for all long-term 276W incapacity benefit recipients, (d) abolishing the qualifying benefit rules, (e) increasing disability working allowance threshhold levels to £50 per week for single claimants and £75 per week for couples, (f) reducing the disability working allowance taper to 15 per cent. and (g) aligning severe disablement allowance with IVB.
§ Mr. ScottThe information requested is as follows:
- (a) We estimate that the cost of extending invalid care allowance to people caring for someone on the lowest rate of the care component of Disability Living Allowance would be about £20 million a year;
- (b) I refer the hon. Member to the answers that I gave to the right hon. Member for Manchester, Wythenshawe (Mr. Morris) on 6 December at column 191;
- (c) We estimate that the cost of extending the invalidity benefit and severe disablement allowance linking rules from the present eight weeks to two years for all claimants would be around £30 million a year;
- (d) We estimate that the cost of removing the qualifying benefit test for disability working allowance would be about £150 million a year once the benefit is established;
- (e) We estimate that the cost of increasing the disability working allowance threshold levels to £50 per week for single claimants and £75 per week for couples would be approximately £22.5 million a year once the benefit is established;
- (f) It is impossible to estimate with confidence what would be the cost of reducing the disability working allowance taper to 15 per cent. but it would probably be well over £100 million a year once the benefit is established;
- (g) I refer the hon. Member to the Answer I gave to the hon. Member for Roxburgh and Berwickshire (Mr. Kirkwood) on 24 July at column 673.
§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what would be the cost of(a) making the lower rate mobility component of disability living allowance. available to people aged over 65 years who also qualify for the care component, (b) making the lower rate care component of disability living allowance available to people who qualify aged over 65 years, (c) making the higher rate mobility component available to those aged over 65 years, (d) removing the lower age bar of disability living allowance, (e) reducing the age limit of disability living allowance to age two or three respectively, and (f) introducing a new higher rate at the same level as the higher rate care for people with locomotor difficulties in OPCS categories 9 and 10.
§ Mr. ScottThe information is as follows:
- (a) The estimated cost of making the lower rate only of the mobility component available to people over the age of 65 who also qualify for the care component would be in the region of £15 million. The cost of making both the rates of the mobility component available to such people would he up to £100 million.
- Estimates of the other costs which have been asked for are (b) £165 million, (c) £2 billion, (d) £35 million, (e) £30 million for an age limit of 2 or £25 million for an age limit of 3.
- (f) There are particular difficulties with attempting to estimate the cost of introducing a new higher rate of the mobility component at the same level as the higher rate care for people with locomotor difficulties in OPCS categories 9 and 10. OPCS severity categories refer to overall levels of disability and a very severe level of overall disability may not necessarily equate with appreciable mobility needs. If a higher rate mobility component was to be paid in the way suggested in the question it would be necessary to decide the overall level of a person's disability before going on to determine whether there were any locomotion difficulties; and benefit would be awarded regardless of the severity of those locomotion
277 - disabilities. The Government does not believe that such an approach would be either sensible or workable. The cost, assuming the normal age conditions for the mobility component, might be around £140 million, but this cannot be assessed with any certainty.