Disability allowance, formerly disabled person's allowance, is a means-tested payment for people with long-term disabilities. The means test takes account, with certain exceptions, of any income which the person may have, including pensions from other sources. Since taking over responsibility for the administration of the scheme from health boards in 1996 I have made a number of improvements in the means test which have extended entitlement to the allowance to people who would not previously have qualified for the scheme.
The carer's allowance is payable to people who are providing elderly or incapacitated pensioners or certain disabled persons such as recipients of disability allowance, with full-time care and attention and whose incomes fall below certain limits.
The scheme has been progressively expanded and improved since its introduction in 1990. In 1995, for example, it was extended to include carers looking after people aged 66, or over, other than those in receipt of social welfare type pensions, such as occupational pensioners.
Further improvements in each of these schemes as they apply to people with disabilities will be considered in a budgetary context. In this connection particular account will be taken of the Report of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities which made a number of specific recommendations in relation to income support for people with disabilities and their carers.
