Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to Written Parliamentary Question 107115, how many people with a learning disability are recorded as beneficiaries of the NHS Low Income Scheme.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Low Income Scheme is administered by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) on behalf of the Department. The NHS BSA does not collect or record information on applicants’ medical or health conditions, including whether they have a learning disability. As such, no data is held on the number of people with a learning disability who are beneficiaries of the scheme.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure that NHS England staff who have taken partial retirement receive fair redundancy payments..
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Voluntary Redundancy (VR) scheme being used by NHS England is the national ‘model Voluntary Redundancy’ scheme approved by HM Treasury for use across the National Health Service. The national ‘model VR scheme’ directs that voluntary redundancy payments should be made in accordance with Section 16 of the NHS Terms and Conditions Handbook. These terms and conditions are developed and maintained through the NHS Staff Council for staff covered by Agenda for Change. They include provisions about how redundancy pay should be calculated in instances where an individual has taken some, or all, of the pension. NHS England has completed an Equality Impact Assessment on the implementation of the national model VR scheme.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will consider extending NHS sight test eligibility criteria by listing learning disability as a risk factor.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Whilst adults with a learning disability do not automatically qualify for free National Health Service sight tests, they may qualify under other categories of exemption, for example being in receipt of income-related benefits or through the NHS low-income scheme.
To support children and young people with learning disabilities, free NHS sight tests are available within special educational settings across England, that choose to host a service.