The Rt. Hon. Sir John Major KG CH

Tag: 1986

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Severe Weather Payments – 12 December 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Severe Weather Payments on 12th December 1986.

    Mr. Frank Field Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will update the table on page 4 of the proposals for regulations to provide a new scheme of supplementary benefit for exceptionally severe weather payments (CM 18) in the light of the decision by his Department to re-locate a number of weather stations.

    Mr. Major Three changes have been made to the table. Tummel bridge and Cranwell stations have been deleted, and a new station (Kirkwall) has been added. The number of years since 1979 when the mean weekly temperature recorded at the Kirkwall station reached or was lower than minus 1.5 deg Celsius is nil.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Mr & Mrs J Hemborough – 12 December 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Mr & Mrs J Hemborough on 12th December 1986.

    Mr. Wigley Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services on what date the case of Mr. and Mrs. J. Hemborough was referred to him by his Department’s office; on what date a decision was made on this case; and if he will make a statement on the Government’s position following the supplementary benefit commissioner’s decision R(SB) 21/85 concerning the restriction of interest payments to claimants who have remortgaged their homes.

    Mr. Major I shall write to the hon. Member.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Blind People – 12 December 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Blind People on 12th December 1986.

    Mr. Carter-Jones Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what bodies he has consulted in his Department’s review of form BD8 for blind people;
    (2) what progress has been made in the review of form BD8;
    (3) when the review of form BD8 began; and when he expects to be able to announce conclusions;
    (4) what representations and recommendations he has received from the Royal National Institute for the Blind about the review of the form BD8.

    Mr. Major In August 1983 we issued a consultation document to the relevant statutory, professional and voluntary bodies, including the Royal National Institute for the Blind, which have since pressed for a decision. Work is proceeding within the Department and we will announce a decision as soon as possible. The full list of organisations consulted is:

    Association for the Education and Welfare of the Visually Handicapped
    Association of County Councils
    Association of Directors of Social Services
    Association of District Medical Officers
    Association of Metropolitan Authorities
    Association of Nurse Administrators
    Association of Optical Practitioners
    British Association of Social Workers
    British College of Ophthalmic Opticians
    British Medical Association, General Medical Services Committee
    British Medical Association, Ophthalmic Group Committee
    British Paediatrics Association
    Community Medicine Consultative Committee
    Disabled Living Foundation
    Faculty of Ophthalmologists
    Health Visitors Association
    Hospital for Sick Children Special Health Authority
    Joint Consultants Committee
    London Boroughs Association
    Medical Research Council
    Moorfields Eye Hospital Special Health Authority
    National Association of Orientation and Mobility Instructors
    National Association of Technical Officers for the Blind
    National Federation of the Blind
    National League of the Blind and Disabled
    North Regional Association for the Blind
    Office of Population Censuses and Surveys
    Partially Sighted Society
    Regional Health Authorities
    Residential Care Association
    Royal College of General Practitioners
    Royal College of Nursing
    Royal National Institute for the Blind
    Society of Nurse Advisers (Child Health)
    Southern and Western Regional Association for the Blind
    Visual Impairment Association

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Sick Pay – 12 December 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Sick Pay on 12th December 1986.

    Mr. Clay Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will estimate (a) the gross and (b) the net cost of paying statutory sick pay at 100 per cent. of earnings for (i) six weeks and (ii) three months.

    Mr. Major The gross costs requested are estimated as (i) £2.5 billion and (ii) £2.75 billion. On each of these amounts employees would pay approximately £1 billion in income tax and national insurance contributions (NICs). However, an unknown proportion of this revenue would replace tax and NIC already payable on occupational sick pay schemes. It is therefore not possible to calculate the extra revenue with sufficient reliability to produce worthwhile estimates of net cost. The estimated cost of SSP in 1986-87 is £688 million.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on the RCP Report – 12 December 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on the RCP Report on 12th December 1986.

    Mrs. Renée Short Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what response he has sent to the Royal College of Physicians’ report to him on physical disability in 1986; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr. Major My right hon. Friend did not commission the report and has not been invited formally to respond to it. We nevertheless welcome the report, which will make an important contribution to the discussion of how services for disabled people can be better co-ordinated and integrated. Officials of the Department have had informal discussions with the report’s authors, and we are now considering how best to develop the ideas which it has put forward.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on the Board and Lodging Allowance – 12 December 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on the Board and Lodging Allowance on 12th December 1986.

    Mr. Conlan Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many people in Gateshead, living as board and lodgers, have had their supplementary benefits reduced under the board and lodging supplementary regulations since the passage of these regulations.

    Mr. Major The Department’s local offices do not keep separate statistics on the number of people living in board and lodging, nor do they identify those who have had their supplementary benefit reduced under the Supplementary Benefit (Requirements and Resources) Miscellaneous Provisions Regulations 1985.

    This information is not therefore readily available and could be obtained only by a special exercise which would be disproportionately costly.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on the Maternity Grant – 12 December 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on the Maternity Grant on 12th December 1986.

    Ms. Richardson Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give the precise sum to be paid to mothers eligible for the means-tested maternity grant to be introduced on 6 April 1987; and if he will give details of the information published by his Department which informs women about this new benefit and how to claim.

    Mr. Major I expect to make an announcement shortly.

    Mr. Clay Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will estimate the net annual cost of increasing the maternity grant to £165.

    Mr. Major The gross annual cost of increasing maternity grant to £165 would be about £95 million. There would be a consequent saving on supplementary benefit expenditure for single payments for maternity needs. In 1984, the latest year for which records are available, these payments amounted to nearly £13 million.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Invalid Care Allowance – 17 December 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Invalid Care Allowance on 17th December 1986.

    Mr. Anderson Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the average waiting time from the date of application for invalid care allowance; how many claimants are still waiting to be dealt with; and what steps he is taking to reduce this period.

    Mr. Major As at 5 December, the latest date for which information is available, about 75,000 claims are awaiting decision. Most of these claims are held up by the need to make inquiries of a variety of sources, including the claimants themselves, to obtain further information. The average time taken to process a claim is currently 22.5 weeks. We are taking all practical steps to reduce this period.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Benefits (Costs) – 10 December 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Benefits (Costs) on 10th December 1986.

    Mr. Meacher Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how much of the additional £1.7 billion allocated to social security expenditure for 1987-88 in autumn statement was in respect of the estimated cost of (a) real increases in benefit rates, (b) increase in number of retirement pensioners, (c) increase in number of unemployed people claiming benefit, (d) increase in number of people claiming because of long term sickness disability, (e) increase in the number of single parents claiming benefit, (f) increased cost of administering a larger number of claims specifying how much is due to the expected increase in the number of staff, (g) increased cost of implementing the Social Security Act specifying how much is in respect of (i) replacement staff to enable permanent staff to be trained in the changes and (ii) extra staff costs in respect of conversion to income support and (h) other factors.

    Mr. Major A detailed explanation of the changes to the programme will be published in the 1987 Public Expenditure White Paper in the normal way.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Disabled People – 10 December 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Disabled People on 10th December 1986.

    Mr. Alfred Morris Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what further representations his Department has received from the chairman of the Social Services Committee of the Association of Metropolitan Authorities about implementation of the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986; what reply he is sending; what action he is taking; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr. Major I received a letter dated 24 November from the chairman of the social services committee of the Association of Metropolitan Authorities asking for an early meeting to discuss the implementation of the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986. I have replied today agreeing that such a meeting would be useful when officials from the Department have met officials from the local authority associations to clarify some outstanding issues on the costing of the various provisions of the Act, and indicating that I would be asking my office to make the necessary arrangements.