Keeping the cold from the door
Frank Field Many families and old age pensioners unnecessarily go for long periods of time without any heating at all. Because they are unable to pay their gas or electricity bills, their supply is cut off. Other people, because of insufficient money, are prevented from buying enough fuel to keep warm. Both these groups remain cold during the winter months, despite the fact that the Supplementary Benefits Commission (SBC) has the power to give lump sum payments to cover fuel debts, as well as to make an extra payment to claimants who find it difficult to keep warm.
• Last Thursday, representatives from Social Service Departments, old people's and family organisations met to discuss, first, why the SBC does not make full use of its powers to prevent this form of hardship, and second, the ways in which both voluntary and statutory bodies can help persuade the Commission to part with the money taxpayers have allocated for the needy.
This job is not an easy one. The Task Force report on the help — or lack of it — which 617 old and cold people in Islington received once they had asked for a little extra from the SBC was reported by Custos at the time of its publication. Only thirty-three claimants received any extra help, and most of the old people have heard nothing since they made their requests for an extra weekly addition. However, it was proposed to the meeting that every social and voluntary worker in touch with old people or families who were finding it difficult to keep warm this winter should inform them of their right to what is called in the trade a 'special circumstances addition.' Under existing rules, the successful claimant may gain an extra 30p, 660p or 90p a week. The rules are as follows: 30p Allowance: A claimant will be awarded 30p for extra heating if: (a) His mobility is restricted by health or old age; or (b) Either his accommodation is difficult to heat because of dampness or room size (unless there is a non-dependant aged twenty-one or over in the household in which case this criterion does not apply); or he is obliged to use an expensive form of heating. 60p Allowance: A claimant will be awarded 60p if: (a) His mobility is restricted by health or old age; and either his accommodation is difficult to heat, or he is obliged to use an expensive form of heating; or (b) He is seriously ill or housebound; or (c) Either his accommodation is exceptionally difficult to heat; or it is difficult to heat and he has to use an expensive form of heating. 90p Allowance: A claimant will be awarded 90p if: (a) He is bedridden; or (b) He is seriously ill or housebound; and either his accommodation is exceptionally difficult to heat or it is both difficult to heat and he has to use an expensive form of heating.
Readers of The Spectator who come into contact with poor people are invited to join in this campaign. And when asking for extra additions for heating for claimants, the supplementary benefit office should be reminded that, on the estimates provided by the Government, only a fraction over half of eligible claimants are receiving allowances for heating.
In June 1972, Paul Dean, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the DHSS, informed the House that 290,000 old people, together with 60,000 families, would be eligible this winter for a heating allowance. In a letter I received a couple of weeks ago, the Minister told CPAG that 187,000 claimants were now in receipt of a regular weekly addition to cover their full heating costs. Difficult local DHSS officials might be reminded of these figures.
You will also have to bargain with the local officer on how much the extra weekly addition should be. Most claimants have only 30p. If this is inadequate to meet the claimant's heating needs, you should ask for more. In doing this, you should find the following information helpful.
The Commission has power under the Ministry of Social Security Act, 1966, to pay claimants a weekly sum in excess of the scale rates. Schedule 2 para 4(1) (a) reads: "Where there are exceptional circumstances — benefit may be awarded as an amount exceeding that (if any) calculated in accordance with the preceding paragraphs."
The Act does not, therefore, lay down by what amount the Commission should exceed the scale rate. But it allows the Commission to make awards which it considers appropriate to meet the circumstances of each claimant.
Although the Act gives the Commission the power to make additions to the scale rate of any amount, we have seen that the Commission has modified this flexibility. Not only has it laid down those circumstances in which a claimant is eligible for a discretionary addition, but is also lays down the size of the addition — 30p, 60p or 90p.
If you fail to gain an adequate heating allowance for the claimant, you should tell the claimant of his rights to appeal and say that you will represent him at the hearing.
In deciding what a claimant's true needs are, the tribunal will find it helpful if you can provide it with the follOwing information: 1. That the Act allows the Commission to meet a claimant's heating requirements which are not provided for in the scale rate, and that the internal rules made by the SBC which override the powers given to individual officers by Parliament, thus preventing them meeting these needs in full, are not binding on the tribunal; 2. The tribunal should be given evidence of how much the claimant spends a week on heating in winter months. You will need to calculate how much it would cost to heat the claimant's home adequately seven days a week, taking into account pettonal circumstances of the claimant (e.g. mobility and time spent in the home), housing conditions (damp, insulation, etc.), housing standards (e.g. Parker Morris) and the type of heating system normally used (electric fires, gas, central heating, etc.); 3. It is desirable, although not essential, that you also present medical evidence to the appeal tribunal from the claimant's doctor. The doctor should be asked to provide a note stating that the claimant might he in danger of suffering from hypothermia (low body temperature) because of inadequate resources. If the claimant's doctor is unwilling to provide this evidence then you should present to the appeal tribunal material which has already been published on the dangers of hypothermia to old geople and very young children.
You may also meet additional problems if the claimant is in receipt of the long term addition. Before the 1966 Act, some claimants received very small sums to cover the cost of a special diet, of laundry bills and the like. In 1966 it was decided tootandardise the 'bits and bobs' and give a long term addition to all old people, together with all other claimants who had been on benefit for more than two years, and who were not required to register for work. The long term addition now stands at 60p a week (85p for those aged eighty or over).
The 1966 Act states that when determining a claimant's right to any additional help, for example with heating, regard shall be had to the long term addition. In practice this has meant that the Commission invariably sets any additional needs against Ur long tern addition. So claimants in receipt of the long term addition, and who are awarded a 30p addition for heating, are told that they have been given an extra 30p but they will find it in the 60p addition.
The legality of this practice will very soon be disputed before the High Court. But you need not wait for the High Court ruling. A number of cases have already gone before local appeal tribunals and the tribunals have ruled that ' ' shall ' does not mean ' must '. As a result claimants have been drawing both a long term addition and an extra weekly sum for heating.
If you want further information on how to get claimants full heating allowances, you should contact Jane Streather. She is acting as the co-ordinator of the campaign, and can be found at 1 Macklin Street, London WC2 (01-242 6672).
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