The Rt. Hon. Sir John Major KG CH

Tag: 1985

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Housing (Single Payments) – 24 October 1985

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Housing (Single Payments) on 24th October 1985.

    Mr. Gordon Brown Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services in what circumstances single payments are being refused to single persons or married couples who take on the lease of a council house.

    Mr. Major It is assumed that the question refers to claims for single payments of supplementary benefit for essential furniture and household equipment. Such claims may be refused for a number of reasons: for example, there is no entitlement to supplementary benefit; there is no need for the item(s) claimed; the claimant’s capital in excess of £500 is sufficient to meet the cost of the item(s); the claimant has not been in receipt of benefit for a continuous period of six months or, where he has, there is suitable, alternative furnished accommodation available in the area.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Pound Lodge Resettlement Unit – 24 October 1985

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Pound Lodge Resettlement Unit on 24th October 1985.

    Mr. Freeson Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make it his policy that the Pound Lodge resettlement unit in Willesden remains open and if he will make a statement.

    Mr. Major I refer the right hon. Member to the reply given by my hon. Friend the Minister for Social Security to my hon. Friend the Member for Elmet (Mr. Batiste) on 5 February at c.548-49. The future of Pound Lodge resettlement unit and the six other London resettlement units will be reviewed when the replacement scheme for the Camberwell unit is further advanced, and no action will be taken until then.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Single Pensioners – 22 October 1985

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Single Pensioners on 22nd October 1985.

    Mr. Barry Jones Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the percentage of single pensionable households in England.

    Mr. Major Of the total number of households in England there are some 14.15 per cent. with one person of pensionable age usually resident and living alone. (Source 1981 census.)

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Supplementary Benefit – 21 October 1985

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Supplementary Benefit on 21st October 1985.

    Mr. Gordon Brown Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the costs of meeting mortgage interest payments for claimants of supplementary benefit, other than the unemployed, breaking these down into one-parent families, the sick and disabled and pensioners, and showing how many persons in each category benefit.

    Mr. Major [pursuant to the reply, 13 May 1985,c. 32]: The information is not available in the precise form requested. The best figures available, obtained from the Annual Statistical Enquiry 1983 (a copy of which is in the Library) are given in the table. These show the amounts of mortgage interest included in the assessment of supplementary benefit. No account has been taken of adjustments made in respect of non-dependants or other deductions.

    Mortgage Interest Considered in Assessment

    Claimant Type | Number | Annual Amount (£ million)

    One Parent Families | 35,000 | 21

    Sick and Disabled | 15,000 | 9

    Pensioners | 39,000 | 10

    Others (excluding unemployed) | 12,000 | 5

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Mr. Paul Escott – 21 October 1985

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Mr. Paul Escott on 21st October 1985.

    Mr. Ron Davies Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services when he will be replying in full to the letter sent on 20 June from the hon. Member for Caerphilly concerning board and lodgings payments to one of his constituents, Mr. Paul Escott of Ystrad Mynach, Mid-Glamorgan.

    Mr. Major I will write to the hon. Member this week.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Departmental Expenditure – 21 October 1985

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Departmental Expenditure on 21st October 1985.

    Mr. Tony Banks Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how much his Department has spent on office furniture, curtains and carpets and office decorating in each of the last five years.

    Mr. Major Information in the form requested is not available. Under the property repayment services arrangements introduced in 1983-84, decorations remain the responsibility of the Property Services Agency, which includes a levy for minor works, including decorations, in the accommodation charge to departments. Before 1983-84, supplies, which include furniture, furnishings, cleaning materials, removal costs and similar expenditure were provided by the Property Services Agency as a common service. Expenditure on supplies by the Department for its HQ, central offices and local offices since then was:

    Year | £ million

    1983-84 | 7,349

    1984-85 | 8,448

    It is not possible to estimate separately the cost of office furniture, curtains and carpets and office decorating in these years.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on War Pensions (Staff) – 21 October 1985

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on War Pensions (Staff) on 21st October 1985.

    Mr. Wigley Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he is satisfied that the medical branch of the war pensions department of his Department has an adequate number of doctors on its staff to undertake its work effectively; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr. Major Recent delays in processing war pensions claims and appeals have been caused partly by difficulties in recruiting medical officers. In the last few months a number have been recruited and by mid November we expect that all of the 15 posts at the war pensions branch will be filled. The number of claimants to war pensions awaiting medical decisions has already been reduced to less than half the number six months ago. Provided that successful medical recruitment continues, we are satisfied that the number of doctors will be sufficient to eliminate the delays.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Rhodesian Service Pensions – 21 October 1985

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Rhodesian Service Pensions on 21st October 1985.

    Viscount Cranborne Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether, in the light of the decline in the value of the Zimbabwe dollar against the pound sterling, he will bring forward proposals for increasing the value of pensions awarded to war widows of Rhodesian service men who are British citizens having re-settled in the United Kingdom; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr. Major The United Kingdom Government may supplement a war widow’s pension payable to a British citizen resident in this country by the government of a former colony. The supplement is set at a level sufficient to raise the pension to the amount which would be payable under the United Kingdom war widows’ pension scheme and is usually recalculated annually. If my hon. Friend has a particular case in mind which he would like me to look into, I should be happy to do so.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Supplementary Benefit – 21 October 1985

    The text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Supplementary Benefit on 21st October 1985.

    Mrs. Beckett Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will place in the Library tables showing for each supplementary benefit office (a) the numbers of live cases in each of the three categories, pensioners, unemployed and others, for the most recent year for which information is available and (b) the number of single payments made to claimants in each of these categories by each office in the same year.

    Mr. Major Tables showing the latest available figures of claimants, in the categories of pensioners, unemployed and others, receiving supplementary benefit from each of the Department’s offices were placed in the Library on 25 March in response to the hon. Member’s earlier request of 5 March at column 504. Tables showing the number of single payments made in the year ending April 1985, broken down on the same basis, were placed in the Library on 7 October.

    Ms. Harman Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many supplementary benefit claimants there were in the London borough of Southwark in each of the years 1979 to 1985; and what was the number of children dependent on these claimants in each of those years.

    Mr. Major I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to her by my hon. Friend the Member for Wycombe (Mr. Whitney) on 1 May at columns 169–70. This reply gave the number of people claiming supplementary benefit at the nine local social security offices which serve the London borough of Southwark. The areas served by these offices are not coterminous with the borough so that some claimants living in surrounding boroughs were included in the figures given. Comparable figures for the number of dependent children are not available centrally.

    The following table shows the estimated number of people claiming supplementary benefit in 1981, 1982 and 1983, and the estimated number of children dependent on them. Comparable figures for 1979, 1980, 1984 and 1985 are not available centrally.

    London Borough of Southwark

    Year | Estimated number of Supplementary Benefit claimants | Estimated number of children dependent on these claimants

    1981 | 24,000 | 11,000
    1982 | 29,000 | 14,000
    1983 | 30,000 | 14,000

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Invalidity Benefit – 21 October 1985

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Invalidity Benefit on 21st October 1985.

    Mr. Ron Davies Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give the number and percentage of cases won by appellants appealing against refusal or stoppage of invalidity benefit claims in the past year in England and Wales and the number and percentage of such cases which were supported by (a) the claimant’s own general practitioner, (b) an independent medical consultant and (c) other evidence.

    Mr. Major I regret that information relating to appellants in invalidity benefit cases is not available in the form requested. The latest available information for Great Britain which relates to all types of appeal in invalidity benefit cases for the year ending 31 December 1983 is that 3,280 appeals were made to local tribunals of which 947 were successful. A further 164 appeals were made to the commissioner of which 46 were upheld. Of 3,280 appellants 993 (30 per cent) were therefore successful.

    I regret that no information is available regarding the number of appeal cases supported by (a) the claimant’s own general practitioner, (b) an independent medical consultant and (c) other evidence.

    Mr. Ron Davies Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give the number of occasions in the past year on which payments of invalidity benefit to claimants have been stopped in England and Wales, respectively; and if he will give these figures as percentages of total invalidity benefit claimants.

    Mr. Major I regret that the information is not available in the form requested. In the 12 months ending 2 April 1983, the latest period for which figures are available, about 250,000 spells of invalidity benefit ended in Great Britain. Spells can terminate for various reasons but the great majority will be because the claimant submitted a final doctor’s statement certifying he was no longer incapable of work. As claimants may have had more than one spell of incapacity in a year it is not possible to express this figure as a percentage of the total number of invalidity benefit claimants. But in the same period some 930,000 beneficiaries received invalidity pension.

    Mr. Ron Davies Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give the number of cases where the findings of the regional medical officer conflict with those of a claimant’s own general practitioner and where the findings of the adjudication officer subsequently confirm the opinion of the regional medical officer in cases where claims for invalidity benefit have been refused or stopped in England and Wales for the past year; and if he will express both numbers as percentages of the total number of claims for invalidity benefit.

    Mr. Major I regret that the requested information is not available.

    Mr. Ron Davies Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list, for each office of his Department in mid-Glamorgan, the number of occasions in the past year on which payments of invalidity benefit to claimants have been stopped.

    Mr. Major I regret that the information is not available. If the hon. Member has a particular case in mind, perhaps he would write to me.

    Mr. Ron Davies Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give the number of invalidity benefit claimants at each office of his Department in mid-Glamorgan at the latest available date.

    Mr. Major Information about claimants to invalidity benefit is obtained by periodical analysis of a small sample of cases. From this analysis we estimate that on 2 April 1983 (the latest date for which figures are available), there are approximately 28,700 people receiving invalidity benefit at the Department’s eight offices in mid-Glamorgan. The sample is too small to permit reliable estimates to be made of the number of claimants at any particular office.