Disability Living Allowance: Older People
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending eligibility of the mobility component of the Disability Living Allowance to individuals over the age of 65.
Answered by Sir Stephen Timms
Disability Living Allowance and government mobility support is focused on providing additional help with the extra costs of disability to people who are severely disabled early, or relatively early, in life and who as a result, have had fewer opportunities to work, earn and save. Developing mobility needs in older life is a normal consequence of ageing, which non-disabled younger people have had opportunity to plan and save for.
It is normal for pensions and benefits systems to contain different provisions for people at different stages of their lives, because the help provided needs to reflect varying priorities and circumstances.
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