§ Mr. WigleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security whether a person in receipt of either(a) severe disablement allowance, (b) invalidity benefit, (c) income support with the disability premium, (d) community charge benefit with the disability premium or (e) housing benefit with the disability premium, who subsequently receives disability working allowance and who is then off work sick for over 10 weeks at the time of renewal claim for disability working allowance, will lose the right to renew their claim.
§ Mr. ScottPeople who qualify initially for disability working allowance—DWA—by virtue of one of these benefits can claim again using the same qualifying benefit during the six weeks before and the eight weeks after their award expires—14 weeks in all. They also have to satisfy the remunerative work test in order to qualify for DWA and cannot do so in any weeks when off work sick. To satisfy this test, they must work 16 hours or more either in the week they claim or in one of the two weeks before or they must be expected by the employer to work 16 hours or more in the week after the week in which they claim. The effect of this is that depending on when illness begins, they would have to be absent from work for the whole of a period of 17 weeks spanning the date their award falls to be renewed to lose the right of renewal using one of these benefits.
§ Mr. McMasterTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what plans he has to amend the disability living allowance to ensure that the criteria for award of the higher mobility component do not exclude people with dementia and other progressive neurological conditions; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. ScottNew help is available to people suffering from dementia through the new, lower rates of both components of disability living allowance. We have no plans to amend the criteria for awarding the higher rate of the mobility component of disability living allowance.