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Mr. Meacher : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security in what circumstances the disability working allowance may be awarded for a period either more than or less than 26 weeks ; whether any circumstances relating to the claimant's own personal circumstances entitle a claimant to have the amount of his award reviewed ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Scott : Normally awards of disability working allowance will be made for 26 weeks, but if large numbers of claims are received in advance of the start of the scheme it might, for operational reasons, be necessary to stagger awards to even out renewal claims. Awards will be reviewed, and terminated, only in prescribed circumstances : that is, if a single claimant or both members of a couple die or if a child of the claimant's family leaves and joins another family and income support, family credit or another award of disability working allowance becomes payable in respect of him or her.
Family Credit
Mr. Meacher : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will provide a breakdown of current family credit recipients by (a) employees, (b) self-employed, (c) mortgage owners and (d) tenants, further broken down by sex.
Mr. Jack : At the end of May 1990, the latest date for which figures are available, the information is as follows :
|Number
------------------------
(a) Employees
Male |139,000
Female |129,000
|-------
Total |268,000
(b) Self-employed
Male |38,000
Female |9,000
|-------
Total |47,000
No information is available about the number of family credit claimants who are mortgage payers or tenants.
Mr. Meacher : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what representations have been received by his Department concerning the problems faced by the self-employed who wish to claim family credits ; and what action has been taken by his Department to deal with the problems.
Mr. Jack : Most of the representations have related to business income for family credit purposes being determined on a different basis from that used for income
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tax purposes. Some have also been made about the length of time taken to deal with claims from the self-employed. We have been monitoring the position since the introduction of family credit in 1988 and have introduced a number of changes to help the self-employed, the principal one was to amend the legislation relating to the acceptability of business accounts as evidence. We are commissioning in- depth research into the self-employed in family credit, which will pay particular attention to the way in which the amount of business income is determined.Mr. Meacher : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the average time for processing family credit claims from the day the claim is received to the first day of payment of an award in the case of (a) employees and (b) self-employed.
Mr. Jack : Information is available only for the average time from receipt of the claim to when the decision is made. On this basis, the latest information, for the 12 months ended December 1990, about average clearance times is as follows :
|working days
----------------------------------------
All claims |20.45
Employees |18.73
Self-employed |30.19
Order books are usually issued on the working day following the decision and should be received by payees on the next day.
Mr. Meacher : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what are the average wages of current recipients of family credit ; and what is the average duration of family credit awards.
Mr. Jack : For the end of May 1990, the latest date for which information is available, the average gross weekly earnings in cases in which the main earner was an employee was £108.36. The corresponding figure for all cases, including the self-employed, was £102.12.
Family credit is awarded for a fixed duration of 26 weeks. At the end of the award period a fresh claim has to be made and, if benefit is awarded, it will again last for 26 weeks.
Attendance and Mobility Allowances
Mr. Meacher : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many claims were received by his Department for (a) attendance allowance and (b) mobility allowance in 1988, 1989 and 1990.
Mr. Scott : The information is in the table.
|<1>Attendance |<2>Mobility
|allowance |allowance
------------------------------------------------------------
1988 |362,000 |240,000
1989 |365,000 |242,000
1990 |<3>- |240,000
<1>Initial claims only.
<2>Includes renewal and subsequent claims.
<3>Not yet available.
Mr. Meacher : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what are the most recent figures for the numbers of attendance allowance reviews resulting in an increased award from the lower to the higher rate.
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Mr. Scott : Information is not available in the form requested. However, the total number of awards of attendance allowance, including renewal claims, where the award changed from the lower to the higher rate for the 12-month period ending 30 September 1990 was 31,000.
Mr. Meacher : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the current success rate on renewal claims for (a) attendance allowance and (b) mobility allowance.
Mr. Scott : There were 42,000 renewal claims of mobility allowance in 1990. During the same period there were 33,000 awards on such claims. Information for attendance allowance is not available.
Mr. Meacher : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what action will be taken by the Department subsequent to the recent commissioner's decision CA/380/1990 relating to attendance allowance in respect of children to (a) alert those people whose claims were refused, (b) contact others who would have been entitled but were deterred from making a claim by the age bar and (c) pay benefit to those who were entitled but are now outside the time limit for claiming.
Mr. Scott : We are considering all the implications of this decision.
Mr. Meacher : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will provide details on the training and follow-on training received by examining doctors and adjudicating medical practitioners on the new deaf- blind rules in mobility allowance ; and what monitoring has been carried out by his Department to ensure that examining doctors and adjudicating medical authorities are following departmental guidance when dealing with claims for mobility allowance under the deaf-blind rules.
Mr. Scott : Following the introduction of the new deaf-blind rules in mobility allowance, notes for examining doctors were issued in the form of an insert added to each examination report, both for examining doctors and adjudicating medical authorities. This insert gives guidance on the way the new rules should be applied. Adjudication officers monitor the doctors' reports, and bring to the attention of the Department's senior medical officer any problems which arise. If it is apparent that any doctor requires further training, it is given. Reports by adjudicating medical authorities are examined by the Department's full-time medical staff and, again, any problems are brought to the attention of the senior medical officer.
Mr. Meacher : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, according to the most recent figures available, how many attendance allowance claimants had their award withdrawn or interrupted in 1989 and 1990 on the grounds of living in scheduled accommodation.
Mr. Scott : The information requested is not available.
Mr. Meacher : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many attendance claims in respect of children under two years of age were received by the Department (a) from April 1990 to December 1990 and (b) from March 1970 to March 1990.
Mr. Scott : The information is not available, but 6,100 claims in respect of children under two years were processed in the period April 1990 to December 1990.
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Invalid Care Allowance
Mr. Meacher : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what are the numbers of invalid care allowance recipients who are (a) entitled and (b) potentially entitled to income support, housing benefit or community charge benefit ;
(2) how many invalid care allowance claims have been disqualified on account of the overlapping benefits regulations ; and how many of these claims were received (a) prior to 1 October 1990 and (b) after 1 October 1990 ;
(3) how many invalid care allowance claimants would be entitled to the carer's premium were it not for the overlapping benefits regulations.
Miss Widdecombe : At the time of the May 1989 annual statistical inquiry, some 23,000 income support recipients declared receipt of invalid care allowance. It is estimated that, at the same time, the number of households where the claimant and/or the partner was in receipt of housing benefit, but excluding community charge rebate, in Great Britain was around 6,000. The number of invalid care allowance recipients who would qualify for income support, housing benefit or community charge benefit if they claimed it is not known. Just over 10,000 claims to invalid care allowance have been disqualified solely on account of the overlapping benefits regulations, of which around 150 have been dealt with after 1 October 1990. From 1 October 1990, when the carer premium was introduced, all invalid care allowance claimants, who do not qualify for that benefit solely because of the overlapping benefits regulations, are entitled to the carer premium in income support, housing benefit and community charge benefit.
Disability Appeals Tribunals
Mr. Meacher : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security who will be the medical members on the proposed new disability appeals tribunals.
Mr. Scott : The medical members on the proposed new disability appeal tribunals will be drawn from a panel of medical practitioners appointed by the president of the social security and medical appeal and disability appeal tribunals.
Disability Living Allowance
Mr. Meacher : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list the organisations which responded to the Department's recent consultation on the proposed assessment and adjudication procedures for the disability living allowance ; and if he will make a statement on the responses received and on the action he plans to take in the light of these responses.
Mr. Scott : A list of organisations that responded is in the table. In addition, responses were received from other Government Departments and from individual members of the public.
The proposals in the consultation document received widespread support. The move from medical examination toward self-assessment was welcomed unanimously by the organisations representing disabled people, as was the greater emphasis on evidence from health or education professionals familiar with the claimant. The new three-tier adjudication system, giving access to an
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independent appeal tribunal--the newly constituted Disability Appeal Tribunal--was also seen as a major improvement.Many organisations made helpful suggestions concerning the claim procedure, aimed at helping to ensure the success of this innovative new system. We are taking close account of these suggestions in drawing up our detailed plans for implementation ; and we shall be consulting further, both with disabled people and with their representative organisations, about the claim form and the claim procedure.
Alphabetical List of Organisations Responding to the Consultation Document- -
Organisation
Age Concern
Alzheimer's Disease Association
Association of County Councils
Association of Metropolitan Authorities
Attendance Allowance Board
Attendance Allowance Board of Northern Ireland
British Diabetic Association
British Epilepsy Association
British Limbless Ex-Servicemen's Association
Bromley (London Borough of)
British Medical Association
Cadetcare Associates
Canterbury and Thanet Advice Workers' Group
Centre for Accessible Environments
Cheshire Alliance of Disabled People
Citizens' Rights Office
Cystic Fibrosis Research Trust
Dene Centre
Derbyshire Centre for Integrated Living
DIAL Waltham Forest
Disability Alliance
Disablement Action Group
Disability Benefits Consortium
Disablement Income Group
Disablement Income Group (Scotland)
Greater London Citizens' Advice Bureaux Service
Hackney (London Borough of)
Haemophilia Society
Information Advisory Service
Islington Council
Joint Committee on Mobility for Disabled People
Kent County Council
Lancashire County Council
Leicestershire Association for the Disabled
Leonard Cheshire Foundation
Lewisham (London Borough of)
Mencap
MIND
National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux
National Association for Limbless Disabled
National Deaf Children's Society
Northern Ireland Council on Disability
North Yorkshire Welfare Benefits Unit
Office of the Social Security Commissioners (Northern Ireland) Pendle District Citizens Advice Bureau
Prince of Wales Advisory Group on Disability
Queen Elizabeth's Foundation for the Disabled
Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation (RADAR) Royal National Institute for the Blind
Scottish Society for the Mentally Handicapped
Social Policy Research Unit (York University)
Social Security Advisory Committee
Social Security and Medical Appeal Tribunals Northern Ireland Spastics Society
Spinal Injuries Association
Stockport (Metropolitan Borough of)
Terrence Higgins Trust
Thamesdown Law Centre
University of Birmingham
West Midlands Welfare Rights Advisors' Group
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