§ 18. Mr. BoothTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what measures his Department has taken to maintain support for disabled people.
§ Mr. ScottSince 1979 we have introduced a wide range of improvements. They include the introduction of severe disability allowance, improvements to income support premium for disabled children, and the extension of invalid care allowance to non-relatives and married women. We have aimed to provide a comprehensive and coherent system giving priority to those disabled early in life, who have least opportunity to work and to save and to promote independence and integration. These improvements culminated in the introduction of disability living allowance and disability working allowance in April this year.
By the end of 1992–93 planned expenditure on benefits for long-term sick and disabled people will have risen by more than 170 per cent. in real terms to £13.7 billion.