Disabled People: Councillors

House of Lords written question – answered at on 21 July 2009.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Baroness Scott of Needham Market Baroness Scott of Needham Market Party Chair, Liberal Democrats

To ask Her Majesty's Government what financial assistance is available to disabled people who are or seek election to become councillors where they are ineligible for the Access to Work Grant.

Photo of Lord McKenzie of Luton Lord McKenzie of Luton Parliamentary Under-Secretary (also in the Department for Communities and Local Government), Department for Communities and Local Government, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (also in the Department for Communities and Local Government), Department for Work and Pensions, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Communities and Local Government) (also in Department for Work and Pensions), Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions) (also in the Department for Communities and Local Government)

Access to Work provides practical advice and support to disabled people and their employers to help them overcome work-related obstacles resulting from disability.

Disabled councillors who are paid a salary rather than an allowance, or who receive allowances other than reimbursement of travel, mileage and meal allowances can claim Access to Work support, provided that all other eligibility conditions are satisfied including being paid at least the national minimum wage.

For those people who are not eligible for Access to Work funding, other assistance may be available. People under the age of 65 who have walking difficulties and/or need personal care which results from severe disability may be entitled to the disability living allowance. People whose incomes are below the level agreed by Parliament may also be entitled to income-related benefits, such as housing benefit, council tax benefit, income-based jobseeker's allowance and income-related employment and support allowance.

People in receipt of incapacity benefit and employment and support allowance can continue to receive benefit if they are elected local authority councillors. For incapacity benefit customers and those in receipt of the contributory element of employment and support allowance, account is taken of the amount of allowance payable but benefit is affected only if the allowance exceeds the prescribed limit of £92 in any week. In this event, benefit is reduced on a penny-for-penny basis by the amount that the allowance exceeds the limit. If a councillor is in receipt of the income-related element of 7employment and support allowance, a £20 disregard is applied to allowance payments. There is no limit on the hours worked each week as a councillor.

These special provisions for councillors recognise the particular obligations placed on them by disregarding such work for the purposes of deciding entitlement to benefit.

Jobseeker's allowance is a benefit for people who are available for, capable of and looking for work; we would treat any person seeking to become elected or elected as a councillor in the same way as any other person claiming jobseeker's allowance.

In the assessment of jobseeker's allowance, earnings paid to councillors are treated in the same way as other part-time earnings. They are taken into account and the relevant earnings disregard of £5, £10 or £20 is applied. If a councillor receives a payment for reimbursement of expenses incurred while carrying out their duty, it will be wholly disregarded.

Jobseeker's allowance is not normally payable to people who work on average 16 hours or more a week (or 24 hours in the case of partners of people receiving jobseeker's allowance). However, the hours worked as a local authority councillor are not taken into account when considering their eligibility for benefits. This means that people in receipt of jobseeker's allowance are not discouraged or excluded from becoming councillors.

Jobcentre Plus works with a range of providers from the private, public and voluntary sectors to provide specialist disability programmes to help people with a disability or health condition, who need more extensive support, to overcome the labour market barriers they may face. Programmes such as Work Preparation, WORKSTEP, New Deal for Disabled People and Residential Training can be accessed through the Disability Employment Adviser (DEA). DEAs also have access to work psychologists to assist them in supporting customers if appropriate.

From autumn 2010 the new Specialist Disability programme will replace the existing WORKSTEP and Work Preparation programmes and will be designed as a single streamlined and flexible programme based on effective needs assessment and creation of tailored packages of appropriate support.

The Department of Health also operates several schemes which give exemptions from NHS costs, for example prescription charges, on grounds of low income or because of certain medical conditions or needs.

Does this answer the above question?

Yes1 person thinks so

No0 people think not

Would you like to ask a question like this yourself? Use our Freedom of Information site.