The Rt. Hon. Sir John Major KG CH

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  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on the Invalid Care Allowance – 5 December 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on the Invalid Care Allowance on 5th December 1986.

    Mr. Frank Field Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services by how much claims are being backdated following the change in the rules for invalid care allowance after the European Court ruling.

    Mr. Major Claims may be backdated for up to 12 months before the date on which the claim is actually made, subject to the statutory authorities being satisfied that the conditions were met throughout the period and that there is good cause for delay in claiming. Claims from married and cohabiting women may be backdated to 22 December 1984 subject to the conditions being satisfied. This will apply to claims from married and cohabiting women received by 31 December 1986. After that date the 12-month limitation on backdating will apply to all claimants. Statistics are not available of the amount of backdating in individual cases.
    Mr. Frank Field Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services when he expects to have completed the review of all claims for invalid care allowance currently pending, following the decision in the European Court.

    Mr. Major Experience with cases so far processed – and particularly the extended time needed to obtain replies to inquiries about backdated claims – indicates that all claims currently pending will be proceed by March.

    Mr. Frank Field Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many applications for invalid care allowance are currently awaiting a decision.

    Mr. Major At 21 November 1986, the latest date for which information is available, 65,767 from married women; 10,380 from men and single women.

    Mr. Frank Field Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many claims for back payment of invalid care allowance, following the European Court decision, have now been processed and are being paid.

    Mr. Major I refer the hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Member for Derby, South (Mrs. Beckett) on 3 December at column 701.

    Mr. Frank Field Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will detail the number of telephone inquiries to the Preston office received for each week since he announced his revision of eligibility for the invalid care allowance; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr. Major Records of the number of telephone inquiries received are not kept routinely. The available information relates to the period from 19 November to 2 December only. During this period, a total of 1,969 telephone calls were received by the ICA unit at Preston, Lancs.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Cold Weather Payments – 5 December 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Cold Weather Payments on 5th December 1986.

    Mr. Aspinwall Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many exceptionally cold weather payments have been made in each year since 1980 to applicants at offices in the Bath district.

    Mr. Major Payments were made in the winters of 1981-82, 1984-85 and 1985-86. Information on the number of payments for the winter of 1981-82 is not available, but for the other two winters is 252 and 1,200 respectively.

    Mr. Aspinwall Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many exceptionally cold weather payments have been made in each year since 1980 to applicants at offices in the Bristol district.

    Mr. Major Payments were made in the winters of 1981-82, 1984-85 and 1985-86. Information on the number of payments for the winter of 1981-82 is not available, but for the other two winters is 1,090 and 5,355 respectively.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Pensions – 5 December 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Pensions on 5th December 1986.

    Mr. Wigley Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will introduce a system to enable pensioners who reach their 65th birthday several days before their first pension pay day to be able to receive a once-off Giro from his Department’s local office to pay to them the pension appropriate to that number of days for which they currently lose their pension.

    Mr. Major Retirement pension is paid to people who have both attained a minimum age and retired from regular work. People approaching pension age are already advised in leaflet NP32, sent automatically before age 60-65 to all those for whom the Department holds a contribution record, that any gap between the date of retirement and the first pension pay day can be avoided by making the pay day the retirement date where this is possible for them. The pension is in law a weekly benefit, and at present no powers exist either to pay retirement pension for odd days between the date of retirement and the pension pay day, or, indeed, to recover it for days after a pensioner’s death included in a weekly payment already cashed.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Winter Fuel Payments – 5 December 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Winter Fuel Payments on 5th December 1986.

    Mr. Tom Cox Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will outline his policy for targeting special winter fuel payments to elderly people and disabled people.

    Mr. Major Help with heating costs is available each week to supplementary benefit claimants through the weekly scale rates and heating additions. Extra help through the exceptionally cold weather provision has been targeted on vulnerable groups; the elderly, the very young and the sick and disabled.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Benefits – 5 December 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Benefits on 5th December 1986.

    Mr. Frank Cook Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services on how many occasions since November 1980 a period of exceptionally severe weather has been recognised for the purpose of the Supplementary Benefits (Single Payments) Regulations for each of the Department of Health and Social Security local offices of Stockton, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, Eston and Redcar.

    Mr. Major Single payments of supplementary benefit were available under the exceptionally severe weather provision in this area in the winter of 1981-82 and the winter of 1985-86.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on the Invalid Care Allowance – 4 December 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on the Invalid Care Allowance on 4th December 1986.

    Mr. Frank Field Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will consider lifting the 31 December bar for those eligible for invalid care allowance following the European Court ruling.

    Mr. Major No.

    Mr. Frank Field Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what new steps he intends to take to advertise the eligibility for invalid care allowance following the ruling of the European Court.

    Mr. Major We have issued a new edition of leaflet NI 212 which includes full details of the extension of ICA to married women. We have written individually to 400,000 attendance allowance beneficiaries asking them to alert their carers to the extension of ICA. We have advertised the extension in the national press and journals, including women’s magazines.

    Up to 21 November, we had received some 85,000 claims from married women and new claims arrive at about 2,000 a week. We have no plans for any further publicity.

    Mr. Frank Field Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give the number of claims he expects to be lodged for the invalid care allowance following the ruling of the European Court; and if he will estimate the number of those claimants drawing supplementary benefit.

    Mr. Major The number of claims received to 21 November from married and co-habiting women is 85,000. We continue to receive claims at the rate of around 2,000 a week. We expect, therefore, to have received about 97,000 claims by the end of the year. It is not known how many of these claimants are in receipt of supplementary benefit.

    Mr. Wareing Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what factors have led to recent delays in the processing of awarded claims for invalid care allowance to married women; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr. Major Once invalid care allowance is awarded by the adjudicating authorities, payment is usually processed the following week. There are no substantial delays in processing awarded claims.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Disabled People – 4 December 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Disabled People on 4th December 1986.

    Mr. Tom Clarke Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what consultations he intends to undertake with voluntary organisations of and for disabled people before bringing the various sections of the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986 into force or issuing guidance to local authorities and health authorities; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr. Major Appropriate voluntary organisations will be consulted before regulations are made under section 1 of the Act. We will consider separately whether or not it is necessary or appropriate to consult voluntary organisations on the implementation of other sections of the Act in each particular case.

    Mr. Tom Clarke Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services when he intends to lay commencement orders for sections 5 and 6 of the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986.

    Mr. Major It was originally thought, on the basis of discussions with the local authority associations during the passage of the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Bill through Parliament that sections 5 and 6 would not carry significant resource implications for local authorities. We had therefore hoped that these sections could be included amongst those parts of the Act which could be implemented quickly.

    The associations have however, in the light of further inquiries now produced some figures which suggest that implementation of these sections will indeed have significant resource implications. We have asked for urgent discussions with the associations to clarify this matter and these are now being arranged. Until this issue is resolved, I am unable to say when commencement orders might be laid to bring sections 5 and 6 into effect.

    Mr. Tom Clarke Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) when he intends to lay a commencement order for section 11 of the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986;
    (2) when he intends to lay commencement orders for sections 4, 8, 9 and 10 of the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986.

    Mr. Major As I said in reply to the hon. Members for Roxburgh and Berwickshire (Mr. Kirkwood) and for Caernarfon (Mr. Wigley) on 26 November at column 289, we hope it will be possible to implement sections 4, 8, 9, 10 and 11 of the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986 by 1 April 1987.

    Mr. Wareing Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what representations he has received seeking implementation of the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr. Major I refer the hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Members for Roxburgh and Berwickshire (Mr. Kirkwood) and for Caernarfon (Mr. Wigley) on 26 November at column 289.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Benefits – 3 December 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Benefits on 3rd December 1986.

    Mr. Hirst Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish the latest take-up estimates for supplementary benefit and one-parent benefit.

    Mr. Major The latest estimates by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys of the number of one parent families in Great Britain for each year from 1979 to 1984, suggest that the take-up rate of one parent benefit over that period is as follows:

    Year | Per cent.
    1979 | 70
    1980 | 77
    1981 | 78
    1982 | 83
    1983 | 89
    1984 | 93

    Notes:

    (1) The take-up rate is of those families who stand to gain. Not all families can gain because one parent benefit is taken into account as income for supplementary benefit purposes.
    (2) The increase in child benefit (one parent benefit) for a single parent family was introduced in 1977.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Supplementary Benefit – 2 December 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Supplementary Benefit on 2nd December 1986.

    Mr. Wigley Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services, using the 1983 “Family Expenditure Survey”, how many people fell below supplementary benefit level, were on supplementary benefit and were on incomes up to 140 per cent. of supplementary benefit level in 1983, broken down by family type and economic status; what proportion each group was of the population of Wales; and how this compares with 1979 and 1981.

    Mr. Major I refer the hon. Member to my replies to my hon. Friend the Member for Derbyshire, South (Mrs. Currie) on 25 July at columns 711-12 and to the hon. Member for Dunfermline, East (Mr. Brown) on 6 November at column 584.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Service Pensions – 1 December 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Service Pensions on 1st December 1986.

    Mr. Ashley Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many service veterans of the nuclear tests have applied for a service invalidity pension; how many applications have been accepted; and what percentage this represents of the total applications.

    Mr. Major Since mid-1983 it is known that about 110 claims to war disablement pension have been made on the grounds that disablement was caused by exposure to radiation from atomic bomb tests. None has been accepted on those grounds. In one case only however, a pension was awarded on appeal by the independent pensions appeal tribunal on the grounds of reasonable doubt.