Physically/sensory disabled persons by local authority, disability and age range
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Total disabled persons on the register at 31 MarchMetadata
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General description
The registers of people with physical or sensory disabilities include all persons registered under Section 29 of the National Assistance Act 1948. However, registration is voluntary and figures may therefore be an underestimate of the numbers of people with physical or sensory disabilities. Registration of severe sight impairment is, however, a pre-condition for the receipt of certain financial benefits and the numbers of people in this category may therefore be more reliable than those for partial sight impairment or other disabilities. These factors alongside the uncertainties about the regularity with which councils review and update their records, mean that the reliability of this information is difficult to determine and so it cannot be thought of as a definitive number of people with disabilities.People with sight impairment are registered by local authorities following certification of their sight impairment by a consultant ophthalmologist. The Certificate of Vision Impairment (Wales) formally certifies someone as partially sighted or as blind (now using the preferred terminology 'sight impaired' or 'severely sight impaired', respectively) so that the Local Authority can register him or her.
Registration is voluntary and access to various, or to some, benefits and social services is not dependent on registration. If the person is not known to social services as someone with needs arising from their visual impairment, registration also acts as a referral for a social care assessment.
