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Mr. Dewar: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the estimated benefit saving of the new test, including disability premium recipients in (a) Scotland, and (b) Strathclyde and the Benefits Agency districts contained within Benefits Agency area directorates 4 and 5.
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Mr. Hague: Estimates of benefit savings of the new test by region are not available.
Estimated benefit savings in Great Britain from applying the new medical test to existing recipients of invalidity benefit, new recipients of incapacity benefit and both new and existing recipients of a disability premium in the income-related benefits are shown in the table:
|1995-96|1996-97|1997-98
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Savings from medical test (£ million) |210 |700 |1,000
Note:
Estimates rounded to the nearest £10 million, expressed at constant
1993-94 prices. Estimates include income-related benefits offsetting
costs.
Mr. Dewar: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many of current invalidity benefit recipients are to be exempt from the new test for incapacity benefit by virtue of being aged 58 years or over, by virtue of being in receipt of disability living allowance higher care component; and what is the estimate of the number of exemptions being deemed under the prescribed conditions listed in the report, "Incapacity for Work".
Mr. Hague: We estimate that at April 1995, the number of invalidity benefit recipients aged 58 or over and in receipt of invalidity benefit continuously since 1 December 1993 will be around 738,000.
It is not possible to make an estimate of the number of existing invalidity benefit claimants who are in receipt of
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the highest rate of care component of disability living allowance. We estimate that around 293,000 existing claimants will be treated as incapable of work by reason of the exempt conditions listed in the report, "The Medical Assessment for Incapacity Benefit". Some of them will be aged 58 or over, but it is not possible to identify how many.Cold Weather Payments
Mr. Denham: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security on how many occasions in each of the last five years cold weather payments have been made in the counties of (a) Dorset, (b) Hampshire, (c) east Sussex, (d) west Sussex, (e) Kent and (f) Berkshire.
Mr. Roger Evans: The administration of the cold weather payments scheme is a matter for Mr. Michael Bichard, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Michael Bichard to Mr. John Denham, dated 8 December 1994:
The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your parliamentary question about the number of occasions in each of the last five years when cold weather payments have been made in six counties of southern England.
I have provided a list of the counties for which you requested, giving the number of times the weather stations returned temperature information which resulted in cold weather payments being issued. The information is based on the meteorological weather station that the Meteorological Office have advised broadly covers each county. I hope you find this reply helpful.
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