asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether, in view of the further evidence of rising transport costs, he will now reconsider his decision not to extend the mobility allowance to registered blind persons.

While we have the greatest sympathy for blind people and the problems they face, there are no resources at present to finance new benefits or extend the scope of existing ones.

Is my right hon. Friend aware that if we were to apply the same rules to registered blind people that we apply to the generality of the recipients of mobility allowance, it would cost only £20 million, which is within the errors of accounting even within my right hon. Friend's Department, let alone the whole of Government expenditure?

The figure of £20 million is about right, if the allowance were applied only to blind people up to the age of 65. If it were applied to blind people of all ages, it would go up to as much as £65 million a year. As my hon. Friend will know, we have extended the mobility allowance in recent months to people between the ages of 60 and 65. However, the financial restraints that we now face will not permit an increase either in the number of categories of people covered or the ages covered in the foreseeable future.

Is the Minister aware that there are cases where mobility allowance has been paid and then with- drawn because the person has gone blind? Is not that a despicable practice?

The allowance is paid in circumstances where someone is unable to walk or virtually unable to walk. Therefore, I am surprised at the scenario which the hon. Gentleman has set out. Perhaps he will write to me about the case that he has in mind.

Is not it intolerable that the only section of the disabled which does not receive mobility allowance is the blind, who probably face the greatest difficulty? Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that those who are partially sighted, with very low acuity, get about only with a great deal of difficulty, especially in the conurbations? Will not he yield to the pressure from all parts of the House in the last four years—as evidenced, for example, in the early-day motions that have been signed by hundreds of hon. Members—and soften his heart to blind people?

I should very much like to be able to move on this matter, but the hon. Gentleman was not quite correct in the opening part of his supplementary question. Mobility allowance is not awarded to categories of disabled people according to the nature of their disablement. It is available to people who are unable to walk, or who are virtually unable to walk, no matter what the cause.