§ Lord Rixasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether it is the case that people with disabilities and in receipt of social security benefits 84WA are now being required to use those benefits to pay for local authority services that were formerly free, and whether they regard this as consistent with the legal test of "reasonableness".
§ Baroness CumberlegeThe provisions of Section 17 of the Health and Social Services and Social Security Adjudications Act 1983, in force since 1984, do not exempt people receiving social security benefits from charges for non-residential services where local authorities are using the discretionary powers in Section 17 to make such charges. Section 17(1) of the Act enables an authority to recover any charge it considers reasonable for the provision of services specified under subsection (2), and it is for each authority to decide what is reasonable.
Section 17(3) requires that the authority shall not require a service user to pay more for the services received than it is reasonably practicable for the service user to pay. The Government's view is that, in deciding what charge, if any, it is reasonable for an individual to pay, a local authority should have regard to the individual's financial circumstances, including taking into account any extra expenditure that may be incurred because of their disability.