Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Disabled People – 5 July 1990

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on the Disabled People on 5th July 1990.

Mr. Ashley To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the tax concessions available for disabled people and their carers; and what is the annual cost to the Revenue.

Mr. Major Various social security benefits for the disabled are exempt from income tax:

Benefit Cost of Exemption (1989-90) £ million
Invalidity benefit and severe disablement allowances 390
Industrial disablement benefits 70
Allowances to rehabilitees 7 (negligible)
Attendance allowance 95
Mobility allowance 55
War disablement benefit 95

Two tax allowances are available in respect of disability: the blind person’s allowance and the additional personal allowance for a husband with dependent children whose wife is totally incapacitated throughout the tax year. Each of these allowances costs up to £5 million a year.

In addition, the following extra-statutory concessions give favourable treatment to payments to the disabled:

A26 Sick benefits – Estimated cost: up to £100,000.
A59 Home to work travel of severely disabled employees – No central data on which to base a reliable estimate.
A62 Pensions to employees disabled at work – Estimated cost: up to £100,000.

Further details are given in the Inland Revenue’s booklet IR 1.