ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an introduction to and an overview of social security provision for people with learning disabilities. It is argued that the changes made in recent years in the name of rationalisation and simplification have not resolved the acute difficulties experienced by people with learning disabilities in taking up rights to benefit. These difficulties are examined and described through a brief survey of available benefits and a summary of the main principles underlying the social security system which affect disabled people. There is an account of efforts which have been made to promote the full take-up of welfare benefits followed by a tentative analysis of some of the issues arising out of the social security system in so far as they affect health and local authorities. Perhaps the first and most important question which must be asked, however, is ‘Why bother with benefits at all?’
