Karl Turner (Kingston upon Hull East) (Lab) I beg to move, That
this House has considered carer’s allowance. It is an absolute
pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Bardell. I thank all the
Members who have taken the time to attend this incredibly important
and timely debate. It is no exaggeration to describe unpaid carers
as the backbone of the social care system and of communities up and
down the country. In caring for relatives and loved ones,
their...Request free trial
(Kingston upon Hull East)
(Lab)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered carer’s allowance.
It is an absolute pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms
Bardell. I thank all the Members who have taken the time to
attend this incredibly important and timely debate.
It is no exaggeration to describe unpaid carers as the backbone
of the social care system and of communities up and down the
country. In caring for relatives and loved ones, their dedication
ensures thousands of people living with disability or illness are
able to live with dignity and respect. They are vital and their
work is crucially important to society, but too often they are
not treated with the decency and respect they deserve or given
credit for their work, not just in caring for people but in
benefiting wider society.
There are an estimated 11.5 million unpaid carers across the UK,
with over 900,000 of them putting in the minimum 35 hours to
receive the carer’s allowance of just £67.60 per week. It is a
crying shame that their efforts are so poorly recognised. Meagre
as it might be, the benefit is crucial in allowing carers to
perform their vital service, which would simply not be possible
otherwise. However, working outside those caring responsibilities
not only brings home much-needed wages, but we know there are
many benefits from keeping in touch with the workplace, including
carers’ identities and self-esteem, and social engagement outside
their full-time caring role.
Were carers not providing the care that they provide, and the
state were forced to step in instead, the cost to the Treasury
would be extremely high. The charity Carers UK estimates the
economic value of unpaid care provided over the two years of the
pandemic at more than £380 billion—that is more than the entire
NHS budget over the same period. Given the vital importance of
unpaid carers and the allowance that helps them do what they do,
I was utterly appalled when my constituent, Mr Steve Spamer,
wrote to me recently to explain the changes the Government will
impose on him just a few weeks from now.
Steve is registered blind, and has been for many years. Not only
does his wife provide round-the-clock care, but to make ends meet
she works two jobs, up to the maximum hours permitted by the
allowance’s earning threshold. She does six hours cleaning in the
local pub and eight hours in the local shop, on top of providing
full-time care. Working 14 hours at the national minimum wage
rate comes to £124.74 per week, just under the current earnings
threshold of £128.
Next month, the minimum wage will rise by just under 7% to £9.50
an hour. While this is not enough to address the cost of living
crisis, an issue that I will come back to shortly, it is of
course welcome. As a passionate believer in the minimum wage, I
am glad to see it rise. The carer’s allowance will go up too, by
approximately 3% to £69.70 per week. Again, that is a far cry
from where it should be, in my view. Members across the House,
especially Ministers in London, should have frank conversations
with themselves about whether they could survive on that sum.
None the less, we welcome the increase.
The earnings threshold will rise by the same rate. The issue for
Mr Spamer and his family, who will certainly not be alone, is
that the rise in the minimum wage and in the earnings threshold
simply do not match up, forcing them, and many others, into an
impossible dilemma. The Minister might respond that Mrs Spamer
could reduce her hours so that she does not exceed the earnings
threshold. That is all well and good, but this is the real world,
not a spreadsheet. She cannot work just one hour less; she would
have to give up one of those jobs entirely. Even if that were the
smaller job—at the pub, for example, at six hours a week—that is
a loss of £57, nearly £200 a month. That is comparatively a
fortune to the family, and the difference between having
something to eat, putting grub in their tummies, and not turning
on the central heating.
The only other option is to give up the carer’s allowance,
because if the earnings threshold is exceeded by just £1, 100% of
the benefit is removed. That is the harshest withdrawal rate in
the entire welfare system. That is the choice, though it can
hardly be called that, that the Spamers and thousands of other
families now face, cut back by £200 or £280 a month. They are
stuck between a rock and a hard place, in the face of a
devastating cost of living crisis, soaring inflation,
sky-rocketing energy bills, and a Chancellor more interested in
publicity stunts than putting money in the pockets of working
people.
It is worth bearing in mind that the £20 universal credit uplift
shamefully did not apply to those on legacy benefits, including
carer’s allowance. People in this position have received even
less support than others. The Minister knows all of this. I was
grateful to have had the opportunity earlier today to speak to
her briefly about what I wished to raise, so I know this will
come as no surprise.
I also wrote to her six weeks ago, to raise the Spamers’ case. I
had hoped that the discrepancy between the national minimum wage
and the carer’s allowance earnings threshold rises was a simple,
honest oversight, rather than a catastrophic, seemingly
deliberate omission, affecting unpaid carers. Sadly, the reply I
received confirmed that the Department for Work and Pensions was
proceeding exactly as intended, and would only consider further
changes to the earnings limit
“where they are warranted and affordable”.
The Minister needs to have a long, hard think about how those
words sound to families up and down the country, frankly doing
the work of heroes, caring for people who are incredibly ill,
some who might be near death, and saving the country an absolute
fortune. In recent years, consensus has been reached in this
House and the country on the need, though not the method, for
root and branch reform of the social care system. A conversation
on how the carer’s allowance fits in to that picture is long
overdue.
Mr Spamer and his family, and all the thousands of people like
them, should not be subject to a drawn-out review and
consultation. They are staring down the barrel of the gun in just
a few weeks’ time. The bare minimum I ask of the Minister today,
without fudges and caveats, is to fix this punishing anomaly.
Match up the rates and do not punish those who have done
absolutely nothing but good for their family and society.
(in the Chair)
Before we move to the next speaker, I ask hon. Members to be
mindful of how much interest there is in this important debate.
If they can keep their contributions to around six minutes, I
will not impose a formal time limit.
2.40pm
(Worsley and Eccles South)
(Lab)
It is a pleasure to speak in this debate with you in the Chair,
Ms Bardell. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston
upon Hull East () on securing this important
debate. The cost of living crisis is affecting everyone, but the
toll on unpaid carers is particularly heavy, as we have just
heard.
Carer’s allowance is the lowest benefit of its kind at just
£67.60 a week. Many carers are in arrears, but cutting back on
what is spent is not an option when the person being cared for
relies on an electric ventilator, an electric wheelchair,
pressure pads, hoists or a stairlift, or that person must be kept
warm due to a medical condition. Other costs facing carers are
also likely to be higher and difficult to reduce, such as
transport costs to attend medical appointments or food bills due
to dietary or nutritional requirements. Inflation is rising as
much as 10% for low-income households because a greater
proportion of their income is spent on those energy costs.
However, the 3% uplift in carer’s allowance next month does not
begin to match those spiralling costs of food and energy.
In a survey, Carers UK has reported that two thirds of carers are
currently unable to meet their monthly costs and that is before
all the spiralling increases. Furthermore, a quarter of the
carers surveyed are already having to use foodbanks. That means
the number of unpaid carers relying on foodbanks may be
substantial, because as my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston
upon Hull East just said, there are 11 million unpaid carers.
Katy Styles is an unpaid carer who cares for her husband and
mother. She is a campaigner for the Motor Neurone Disease
Association. She gave evidence this week to the House of Lords
Adult Social Care Committee and said:
“It would be remiss of me not to mention carers’ finances,
because that makes you invisible and impacts on absolutely
everything. I went from being a full-time teacher to being a
part-time teacher to accommodate my caring role”.
She then went from being a part-time teacher to
“having to give up my job because it was not flexible enough. You
have to be there in core hours. You have to be there during term
time. If your husband has an issue or needs a medical appointment
that is out of that time, you cannot support them.
I am on £67.60 a week now, having had £150 a day. It is a very
different thing. I am lucky, because I actually get carer’s
allowance. There are so many carers who are not supported with
carer’s allowance. That has to change. It needs reform.”
There is a recognition of that need for extra support for unpaid
carers in other parts of the UK. Unpaid carers in Scotland
receive the carer’s allowance supplement, while in Wales it was
recently announced by the Labour Government that unpaid carers
would be given a £500 payment to recognise their commitment to
caring during the pandemic. By contrast, unpaid carers in England
are being left to get by with only a £2 a week increase in
carer’s allowance. That miserly increase would be swallowed up,
from this Friday, by paying £2.50 for a single lateral flow test
just to keep the person they care for safe. On top of that come
the soaring bills I have already mentioned.
My hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull East has talked
about the mismatch between the increase in the national living
wage and the carer’s allowance earnings threshold, leaving
carers, as he said, with impossible choices and loss of income.
We cannot continue to leave carers without proper support. That
includes carer’s breaks. Funding for respite care has dried up
and is no longer earmarked for breaks as it was up to 2010.
Carers UK has estimated that 72% of carers have not had a break
from caring during the pandemic. Three quarters of carers say
they are exhausted and worn out from that caring during the
pandemic. The Government’s plan in the social care White Paper
for five days of unpaid leave—unpaid leave—to care is woefully
insufficient. Once again in her evidence to the Lords Committee
on Monday, Katy Styles said:
“I do not know any carer that has had a break. I have not had a
break or one day off in eight years. Indeed, I had surgery 10
days ago for a major eye operation. I was in the theatre at 6.30
and back home caring at 9.30, because there is no support.”
Katy also highlighted how carers who are not identified as such
do not get signposted or helped to access even the support that
is available. She has been a full-time carer for 10 years, but
has only received carer’s allowance for eight. She said:
“If you don’t identify then you’re not signposted to any
support...I didn’t know that, I’ve missed out on benefits,
Carer’s Allowance, for some years, I’ve missed out on carer’s
assessments for years.”
In 2012, I brought in a private Member’s Bill on the
identification of carers. That would have created a new duty on
the NHS to identify carers and promote their health and
wellbeing. The then Care Minister in the coalition Government did
not support my Bill. When the carers action plan came along, it
was not so ambitious; it proposed merely a system of quality
markers so that GPs could demonstrate that they were good at
identifying carers. Carers organisations know that proper
identification of carers by the NHS would mean that we could
support carers much more effectively. Carers such as Katy Styles
would have been identified as carers more quickly, and signposted
to benefits and support earlier, had my Bill been supported by
the Government.
The carers action plan expired at the end of 2020. The Health and
Social Care Committee, of which I am a member, has recommended a
number of times that the Government publish a national carers
strategy. An ambitious national strategy for carers backed up by
funding is essential to tackle those problems of identification
and support that I have talked about. I hope that the Minister
will listen and understand the seriousness of the challenges
facing unpaid carers, which have been outlined in this debate and
will be more so by my colleagues. I hope that she will use the
input and lived experience of carers, which were sent in when the
Government consulted carers in 2016 to develop a national carers
strategy—something they promised but never delivered.
I will finish with the words of one unpaid carer responding to a
Carers UK survey this month, which highlights the situation that
so many unpaid carers are in:
“It seems everything has increased in cost apart from the money
we have to live on. It means that I don’t always have 3 meals a
day now. We don’t always have the heating on. Why should someone
who has a terminal illness not afford to have a warm home?”
2.46pm
(Hayes and Harlington)
(Lab)
The reason I am participating in the debate is that I brought
together an unpaid carers group that has been meeting over the
past few months to talk about the current situation. The fact is,
it is heart-rending to talk about the struggle that most of them
are having. The pressure they are under is immense, and the
pressure that they have been under as a result of covid has
exacerbated the way in which their lives have been transformed by
the altruistic act of caring for someone else.
The carers in the group are, basically, families looking after a
child with a disability or a special need, or families looking
after an elderly relative. What is also remarkable is the number
of the children who look after others in their families. What
came across in the group is that that act of caring has
implications for the whole family: individuals have given up
their careers to undertake caring, and siblings who have given up
the opportunity of going to university to help the family out
with care overall.
It is interesting that none of them asks for anything in return.
They do not even ask for thanks. They just want to get by. They
just want to be able to survive. To be frank, from the
discussions I have been having with them, I do not think that
some will survive this coming period. We call it the cost of
living crisis glibly, but it is a crisis for this particular
group of people in our society in a way that it is possibly not
for others.
To run through some things that they would emphasise—points
others have made—for example, the issue of higher energy costs is
not just about heating; it is the energy that is needed to
maintain basic equipment to enable the person people are caring
for to survive, as my hon. Friend the Member for Worsley and
Eccles South () said. Apart from the
health-support devices and the special equipment, other issues
raised were the transport costs to get to appointments—again,
that can become very costly—and nutritional costs, in particular
as inflation hits hard a number of nutritional inputs required
for the person they are caring for.
It then comes down to what those carers receive. My hon. Friend
the Member for Kingston upon Hull East () raised the issue of the
contradiction between the earnings allowance and carer’s
allowance. It is ludicrous—we all know that it is ludicrous—and
it just needs resolving quickly. I do not understand what logic
there is for arguing for anything other than reform on that
issue. It comes down to the basic level of carer’s allowance, as
far as I am concerned. We are inflicting a level of poverty on
these people, who do so much work to assist our society
overall.
(Blaydon) (Lab)
I thank my right hon. Friend for giving way. We have Carers Week,
when we celebrate and thank carers, coming up in June. Does he
agree that there is no better time to look seriously at raising
the carer’s allowance and making sure that we not only recognise
carers with words but treat them decently?
I fully agree. There is a sense of urgency about this issue now,
because what came out of the discussions that I have had with the
carers group that I brought together is the stress that carers
are under, and the mental health implications not only for
themselves as individuals but for their whole family. We know
that there are examples in the past of how such stress has caused
a mental health problem that has led to suicide.
There is a need for urgent action now. We have gone beyond
intellectual debates about this issue; we just need some action
rapidly, given the fact that carers face these massive increases
in prices, particularly around energy. And then effectively they
face a cut—a 3.1% increase, as against inflation now, which
ranges between 7% and 10%. That level of inflation comes in like
a whirlwind for these particular families and we need urgent
action now. Perhaps that action has not been considered
effectively in the past, but it certainly needs to be considered
now.
(Glasgow East) (SNP)
I am grateful to the right hon. Member for giving way. Does he
also believe that it is incumbent on the state to view this
matter through the prism of preventive spending? If we pile so
much pressure on these carers, who are caring for some of the
most vulnerable people, and then the carers themselves end up in
mental health predicaments or poor health, the costs of that will
be borne by the state anyway. So it is a false economy not to
support them.
That is exactly the final point that I was going to make, because
most of the people who I have talked to are at a tipping point,
where they and their whole family can no longer survive on the
level of income they have, given the pressure they are under.
What comes across time and again is that carers have to struggle:
first of all for recognition; then for assessment of the person
they are caring for; then for support services; and then for just
a respite every now and again. For some of them, that struggle is
becoming insurmountable. Then what happens? The person they are
caring for is taken into care and the costs escalate beyond
anything that we have seen so far. So there is a desperate need
to resolve this matter.
I will just throw in one other point as well. The benefit that
carers get is not an access benefit to other benefits. With
regard to energy costs in particular, a small step would be
access to winter fuel allowance and—to be frank—a doubling of
that winter fuel allowance.
2.53pm
(North East Fife)
(LD)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms
Bardell.
We need our unpaid carers. Carers UK estimates that there were up
to 13.6 million unpaid carers during the pandemic, providing care
worth £530 million per day. However, carers have been left to
fall into poverty by this Government. Carer’s allowance currently
equates to £1.93 per hour, assuming a carer only does 35 hours of
care, which they need to do in order to receive the allowance.
Even with the 3.1% uplift, that figure will increase to only
£1.99, which is still less than £2 per hour.
Carers have borne the brunt of the pandemic. In research by
Carers UK, 81% of carers said they had to provide more care
during the pandemic; 35% were providing more care because
services were closed or not available during the pandemic; and
80% of them were caring for someone whose condition worsened
during the pandemic.
This Government forgot unpaid carers during the pandemic, which
is evidenced by the fact they initially did not include carers in
the priority categories for vaccination. I will just point out
that, having previously been an unpaid carer himself, my right
hon. Friend the Member for Kingston and Surbiton () did a lot of work to ensure that that was
rectified.
Unless someone has cared for somebody else, it is hard to know
the day-to-day pressure of performing a caring role. It does not
matter how much they love the person they are caring for; caring
takes its toll. We know that the pandemic has taken its toll on
everyone and we know the impact on mental health of lockdowns,
uncertainty and constant worrying. For those in caring positions,
it can be a million times worse. Caring can also be a very lonely
role. All disabled people and all conditions are different. For
some, caring means caring for a loved one who does not have the
mental capacity, who cannot communicate and who potentially gets
confused.
When preparing for the debate, I spoke to my researcher—I am
grateful to her for allowing me to share this—who recalled the
experience that she and her mother had when caring for her
father, who developed early and severe dementia a decade ago. She
told me how his constant confusion and distress at not being able
to make sense of his thoughts or communicate them worried the
whole family. Much like a toddler, he would lash out, shout words
that made no sense, and sometimes cause harm to the people and
things around him. She said that they saw themselves as lucky—not
only because he passed away quickly and was put out of his
distressing circumstances, but because it happened long before
the pandemic. She said that the confusion of the new rules would
have simply been overwhelming for him, and that the isolation of
lockdown without any respite would have left lasting damage to
both her and her mother. This will not be the experience for all
carers, but it will be the experience for many. They need not
only our thanks but our support, and it must be tangible.
Lifting restrictions means that more disabled people are being
required to continue shielding, because underlying health
conditions have not gone away. It means that some people are
simply not leaving their homes. It means they avoid seeing others
or going to support services in the community. It means avoiding
going into care homes for respite, and it means that people rely
more heavily on the friends and family who care for them.
My party opposed the Government’s decision to scrap free lateral
flow tests from this Friday, and although the Government have
announced that some categories will be able to access testing,
they do not include unpaid carers, who have been forgotten again.
It is true that carers often share homes with the people for whom
they care, so there is a risk of infection even if it is known
that the carer has covid, but this is not always the case. Many
carers provide full-time unpaid care to those outside their home,
as reflected by the fact that people can apply for carer’s
allowance even if they provide care to a friend outside their
home, so I ask the Government to consider ensuring that unpaid
carers have access to lateral flow tests.
I think that Members on the opposition side of the Chamber agree
that £69.70 is not enough to live on. It is a real-terms cut to
the carer’s allowance, and those on carer’s allowance are already
living on a knife edge. In Scotland, the carer’s allowance
supplement—£237.90 every six months—provides some additional
help, but there ought to be an uplift for all unpaid carers
everywhere. As the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East
() referred to in his opening
remarks, it was disgraceful that when the uplift to universal
credit was introduced, it was not extended to those on legacy
benefits. The Government should have uplifted the remaining
benefits at that time. If £69.70 is not enough for people to live
on, one would think that the Government would support people who
are trying to earn and do something to increase their incomes,
but no. Carers are unable to earn more than £128 per week before
having their allowance cut, which means that £197.70 per week is
all they can hope to earn.
A constituent of mine wrote to me only yesterday. She talked
about how she has had to leave her employment because she cannot
get any help to support her disabled adult daughter. She would
work full time if she could, and she would choose not to seek
anything from the state, but it is just not possible. As it is,
what little support she receives is not enough. In her own
words:
“I cannot stress enough how life and death the question is. We
are stuck and there is nothing we can do to change it.”
Hon. Members have referred to the fact that unpaid carers have
increased costs, often because the people for whom they care have
higher costs. To make ends meet, this means going without in
other ways, which was happening even before we faced the cost of
living crisis that we now see.
Carers should be able to transition into work or education if
they want, but at the moment there is a ban on carers receiving
full-time education. This means that young carers who are
learning and caring for their family are being left without
financial support. With more flexible learning methods now being
commonly used, there is no reason why an older person could not
be doing full-time training from home while still providing care.
The ban does nothing but stop carers reaching their potential in
life, and it keeps them reliant on the small levels of benefits
provided by the Government, who say they want to make work pay.
Working not only puts vital money in the pockets of carers, but
gives a source of identity and support outside that caring
role.
In conclusion, being a carer is hard. Accessing the support
needed to fulfil that role should not make it even harder.
Providing a carer’s allowance that actually cares is
essential.
2.59pm
(Salford and Eccles)
(Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Bardell. I
thank my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull East
() for securing this very
important debate, and for his passionate speech—one that I very
much agree with. At the last census in 2011, 24,188 people over
the age of 16 were carers in Salford. Nationally, Carers UK
estimates that there are now 11.5 million people across the UK
who give unpaid support to someone who is elderly, seriously ill
or disabled. It estimates that, by doing so, unpaid carers are
saving the Government a whopping £193 billion a year.
Last year it was noted that there were only 900,000 full-time
unpaid carers nationally who received support of any kind, in the
form of carer’s allowance. At only £67.25 per week, it is the
lowest benefit of its kind. There are so many more who are
excluded from receiving carer’s allowance, including: carers in
full-time education or studying for 21 hours or more a week;
carers earning more than £128 per week, which is less than 15
hours a week on the national living wage; and carers who spend
less than 35 hours per week on their caring responsibilities.
It is clear that even before the cost of living crisis, thousands
of carers were facing extreme financial hardship. Indeed, a
recent survey by Carers UK found that more than a third of those
on carer’s allowance are struggling to make ends meet; many had
been struggling for months, often relying on food banks to feed
themselves and the people they care for. Now, as energy bills
increase by up to 50%, inflation rises and the cost of day-to-day
essentials skyrockets, there is a real worry that without urgent
support from Government many carers and their families will
simply be unable to cope. Those in receipt of the menial carer’s
allowance have been awarded a 3.1% increase. However, as we know,
inflation is set to reach at least 7.5%, so they face a
real-terms benefit cut.
New research from Carers UK reveals that the financial pressures
on unpaid carers have become untenable. Just under half—45%—of
unpaid carers said that they are currently unable to manage their
monthly expenses and that any further increase in energy bills
will negatively affect their own physical and mental health, or
that of the person they care for. Many also said that they were
taking difficult steps to manage their monthly expenses; 58% had
cut back on heating while 14% had already fallen into arrears
with their energy bills. In the months ahead, more than two in
five thought that they would not be able to heat their home to a
safe level, while a third were worried that they would have to
use a food bank.
It is clear that urgent Government action is required. I join
Carers UK in calling on the Minister, first, to increase carer’s
allowance and other benefits so that they rise in line with
current inflation predictions. Secondly, the Government should
immediately extend the warm home discount scheme to ensure that
it includes carers on the lowest incomes. Thirdly, the Government
should increase the paltry earnings limit for those claiming
carer’s allowance, so that it is at least equal to 16 hours of
work at the national living wage, and provide a carer’s
supplement to all carers with an entitlement in England, Wales
and Northern Ireland, as carers in Scotland have been receiving
since 2018.
Unpaid carers are the backbone of our families; they are our
mums, dads, brothers, sisters, partners and friends. They support
us in our time of need. It is time we gave them the recognition
and thanks that they deserve by supporting them too.
3.03pm
(Bolton South East)
(Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Bardell. I
thank my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull East
() for securing this important
debate. I begin by declaring an interest. I will be speaking from
a place of personal experience, as someone who is a carer.
Indeed, there are 13.6 million unpaid carers in the United
Kingdom supporting family members and friends. Many of their
stories go untold, as do their struggles. I know that some hon.
Members have spoken about the struggles of the people they have
come across, and how they have tried to cope with this.
I will talk a little bit about my situation. Effectively, over
the past 10 years I have been a carer. First I was a carer to my
mother, who passed away in 2017—during the course of the general
election—and more recently I have been a carer to my brother, who
has a number of chronic conditions. Trying to balance life—to
balance working, family and caring—is very difficult. However, I
am lucky enough to have a decent income. I am lucky because my
work is flexible and I can rearrange appointments. If I had a
nine-to-five job, I would not be able to look after my family
members, and I would have to leave my job, as did the teacher, a
constituent of my hon. Friend the Member for Worsley and Eccles
South (), and that is not fair. We
are the fourth or fifth richest country in the world. We should
not have to be in this position and people should not have to do
that.
Even though I am financially stable and have flexibility, even I
get tired, as do others. For example, about eight weeks ago my
brother telephoned me in the middle of the night, at 3 o’clock in
the morning, to say that he had a massive pain in his arm. I
called an ambulance and he was taken straight to Salford
hospital. He had an MRI, was found to have a clot in his arm, and
was operated on immediately. That same night I was with him, but
the next morning was a Monday and I had to come down to
Parliament. When we stay with family members for nights on end,
in the morning we can hardly keep our eyes open and we take loads
of paracetamol to try to get rid of the headache that we get from
not having slept at night.
I know that social services provide some carers and people do get
carers coming in, but that is not enough. Their hours are
limited. They are there for half an hour or 45 minutes to give
someone tea or lunch, but what about the four or five-hour gap
before the next carer visit? More importantly, the night-time
visits have now effectively been stopped by local authorities. I
remember caring for my elderly mother. Because of her physical,
emotional and psychological situation, I could be up three times
a night with her. As I have said, I was able to cope, but others
cannot.
As my right hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington
() has said, everyone knows
about social care and the lack of financial provision for carers.
We have discussed it in Parliament hundreds of times. It has been
debated again and again, but no Government have grasped the issue
and done anything with it. We need drastic changes in the whole
care system. There are 13.6 million carers, some of whom, as
other Members have said, have had to leave their jobs or stop
their education, because that is the grim reality of caring for a
sick member of the family.
For me it is a privilege and an honour to be able to look after
my family. I feel pleased that I can be with them, but I feel
sorry for all those whose families are not around them—people who
are left on their own, often languishing for hours and hours
without anyone to look after them. It is those people that we
need to be concerned about, as well as the carers who end up
looking after them.
This has already been mentioned, but the carer’s allowance is
going up by only 3.5%, and inflation is already more than 7%. We
know that heating bills are going up. A lot of elderly and ill
people often need extra heating, and if they are with their
families, that often means the bill will be paid by their
families.
Transport costs can be much higher because someone might need to
be accompanied or they might need taxis to go to medical
appointments. According to Carers UK, 24% of carers in receipt of
carer’s allowance are using food banks to make ends meet. It also
states that:
“The additional costs of caring can be compounded by carers
having to reduce their working hours”,
as I said, or “leave employment” altogether.
What is the Minister and her Government doing to give support to
carers at this very difficult time? What are they going to do in
real terms to increase the benefits and allowances that carers
get? Will they consider extending the warm home discount scheme
to unpaid carers, to recognise the particularly high energy costs
that carers often face to keep the person they are looking after
safe and warm? Believe me, most ill people need extra
heating.
We need a comprehensive plan for social care to support our
ageing population and to relieve the pressures on the NHS. Many
unwell people spend extra time in hospital because there is no
social care support package available for them, delaying them
there. The average person has a 50:50 chance of caring by the age
of 50 —long before they reach retirement age. Most will not be
able to do that, and they cannot use private carers. The
Government know that, the medical profession know it, social
services know it, local authorities know it, and we all know it.
There is a big problem and a sad situation. Something needs to be
done now.
3.10pm
(Cynon Valley) (Lab)
It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Ms Bardell. Other
Labour Members have outlined passionately the key issue that
care, as a whole, has been insufficiently provided for by this
and preceding Governments. Care work, whether paid or unpaid and
whether for younger people, older people or disabled people, is
undervalued. Having listened to other contributions, every one of
us either currently cares for someone or knows someone who has a
caring responsibility. Coming to terms with somebody’s illness is
difficult in any case, but to have to fight for recognition of
the invaluable role that that person fulfils, and to beg for
money not to have to suffer poverty, is shameful and must be
addressed. After the last election, the Prime Minister
stated:
“we will fix the crisis in social care once and for all”.
More than two years later, we have seen no change or improvement
in support for caring.
Today in this country, accessing care is too expensive; those who
work in care are underpaid, undervalued and overworked. Owners of
some care businesses have been accused of being asset strippers.
Those who have to conduct visits have too great expectations. The
time and effort of those who care for family members is too often
forgotten by this Government. As others have said, carer’s
allowance at its current rate is completely unacceptable. The
pathetic uplift of just over £2 is absolutely shameful. Inflation
could hit 10% this year. How can people be expected to survive on
that paltry amount? It is beyond me and it should be beyond this
Government.
The earnings threshold is very low and blunt, as others have
said. It is lower than other income replacement benefits and
needs to be reviewed urgently. We need a response from the
Government. For more than a decade the Work and Pensions
Committee has repeated called for an increased earnings limit and
the introduction of a taper. The uprating of carer’s allowance
needs to be synchronised with the real living wage. Carers UK
stated in response to the spring statement:
“Many carers are already dipping into savings using credit cards,
and cutting back on essentials to keep the person they care for
warm and to protect their health.”
People currently cannot afford to eat or heat their homes; how
are they expected to survive with a real-terms cut in their
benefits?
I want to focus the rest of my remarks on my country of Wales. I
am proud of our support for carers and am pleased to have the
opportunity to pay tribute to a dear family friend who was the MP
for Aberavon until 2005, , who sadly passed away
recently. He was responsible for introducing the Carers (Equal
Opportunities) Act 2004, which aimed to ensure that carers were
adequately valued and supported. The dismal financial situation
in which so many currently find themselves means that that aim
will not be fulfilled. It has been impossible to implement all
the excellent things in that Act, which is coming up to its 20th
anniversary.
I am pleased that the Welsh Government are following Dr Francis’s
caring and compassionate example. I want to refer to some
positive examples of support for carers, which the UK Government
must look to. Last week, , the Deputy Minister for
Social Services in the Welsh Labour Government, highlighted how
60% of carers in Wales had reduced their hours at work to manage
their caring responsibilities and 6% had given up work
altogether. In recognition of that difficulty, she confirmed that
57,000 registered unpaid carers would be awarded a one-off £500
payment in a commitment worth £29 million.
There have been positive responses from agencies in Wales. Kate
Young, the chair of Wales Carers Alliance and director of the All
Wales Forum of Parents and Carers, welcomed the news that many
unpaid carers across Wales would now be supported by that
payment. Claire Morgan, director of Carers Wales, said:
“This £500 payment is an important first step in actively
recognising carers’ daily contribution to our society”.
Even though Welsh Labour in government has taken more action than
its counterpart in Westminster, we know there is more to do. The
Welsh Government, as well as carer support organisations,
recognise the need to reform the carer’s allowance across the UK.
They are keeping up the pressure on the UK Government to put that
right for carers, as it is the UK Government’s
responsibility.
Last month, said she regretted the fact
that Wales did not control the carer’s allowance. The Welsh
Affairs Committee, of which I am a member, published a report
less than two weeks ago, saying that there should be an
assessment of the potential merits of devolving the
administration of social security benefits to Wales, as has
happened in Scotland. Scotland has used those powers to establish
the carer’s allowance supplement.
I want to remind the House that Welsh Labour in government has
also introduced a £1,000 bonus for 53,000 care workers in Wales,
starting in April, which will be consolidated to ensure that the
living wage is paid to social care workers. That is costing the
Welsh Government £43 million. I have just come back from a
Citizens UK gathering in Parliament Square with Welsh colleagues
that was pushing for health and social care workers in England
also to be paid the living wage. I look forward to seeing that
change happen.
It is worth mentioning that Salford City Council, which is
represented by two of us present, is also paying the national
living wage, as are a number of authorities around Greater
Manchester. That is important in the debate because carers also
depend on quality. Quantity of care is woeful but quality is
important too, and quality improves with better pay.
I fully agree, and that is excellent news.
To conclude, this issue is all part of building towards a
national care service in Wales, which Welsh Labour’s programme
for Government is committed to. In announcing the uplift to care
workers’ pay, the Minister in Cardiff referred to the
commitment
“to set up an expert group to support a shared ambition to create
a National Care Service, free at the point of need”.
That was a commitment that I made when I stood for Parliament in
2019 under our manifesto, and I am pleased that Welsh Labour in
government are delivering on that. There is another way forward:
a way that recognises and rewards care work for the contribution
that people make to society. Labour Members recognise that,
including my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull East
(). I hope the Government are
listening, because millions throughout the country are tired of
waiting.
3.18pm
(Birkenhead) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Bardell. I
am immensely grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston
upon Hull East () for securing this important
debate. Across the country, millions of people make enormous
sacrifices to care for the people they love. Looking after
somebody in need of full-time care too often means giving up on
work, friendships and so many of the ordinary opportunities that
the rest of us take for granted.
Our country could not have survived the pandemic without the
determination and resilience of unpaid carers. While doctors and
nurses battled to save lives and as the virus engulfed care
homes, which this Government unforgivably failed to make safe,
millions of ordinary people stepped up to assume additional
caring responsibilities and to paper over the cracks that have
been inflicted on health and social care by successive Tory
Governments.
In 2020, the campaign group Carers UK estimated that unpaid
carers collectively save the nation £530 million in caring costs
every single day of the pandemic. We owe them all a debt of
gratitude. Nobody should be forced to resort to credit card debt
or payday loans to cover the cost of care, but that is the
terrible reality facing so many unpaid carers today. Unpaid
carers have found themselves cruelly exposed to the catastrophic
impact of soaring food and energy costs, with heating their homes
and powering essential medical equipment becoming a daily
struggle.
Last year, more than a third of carers reported having to cut
back on luxuries, with more than one in 10 taking out additional
debt just to make ends meet. Even before the energy cost rise
again this week, many unpaid carers found themselves in the
position of nothing left to cut. I was recently contacted by a
constituent in a state of utter desperation. Having dedicated her
entire professional life to caring for strangers in the NHS, she
was forced to leave work to care full time for her husband. Now
she tells me that, after paying bills, she is left with just
under £40 to get by, and does not know how she will keep up with
mortgage repayments.
Last week’s spring statement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer
was an opportunity to take meaningful steps to help unpaid carers
survive the most dramatic cost of living crisis in recent memory;
but instead of increasing the carer’s allowance and other
benefits in line with inflation and heeding Labour’s call for
ambitious action to cut energy bills, he put his own political
ambition before the needs of millions of people and brandished
his Thatcherite credentials to win over disaffected Tory Back
Benchers, with a commitment to shaving a penny off income tax in
two years’ time. How does the Minister think that will help
unpaid carers in my constituency who are barely getting by here
and now?
We have heard plenty of warm words from Ministers at the Dispatch
Box about the invaluable contribution that carers make. We have
seen countless photo opportunities of Ministers meeting carers in
their constituencies, or standing on the doorstep to applaud them
during the darkest days of the pandemic, but that will not put
food on the table or coins in the meter. It will not provide the
slightest reassurance to unpaid carers in my constituency, who
are genuinely petrified about whether they will survive the
punishing months ahead.
The virtue signalling must stop; what we need is action. That
means dramatically increasing the pitiful rate of carer’s
allowance, so that millions of households are not drowned by
soaring prices; dramatic action to cut energy bills for the worst
off and most in need; and, following the example of the
pioneering Labour Government in Wales, introducing a one-off
payment for unpaid carers to help see them through this Tory cost
of living crisis.
3.23pm
(Glasgow East) (SNP)
It is always a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship,
Ms Bardell. I realise that, being in the Chair, you are
constrained in what you can say. You probably want to take part
in the debate, and I am sure you would want to put on record your
thanks to the carers of West Lothian for the work they do to
support your constituents, but I will not seek to bend the rules
further.
I congratulate the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East
() on bringing the debate. I am
acutely aware that the situation with P&O Ferries is also
taking up a huge amount of his time. It is testament to the care
he has for all his constituents that he is able to spin all those
plates. With the indulgence of the Chair, I would also like to
recognise Ian Dick, who is down from Glasgow and in the Public
Gallery. I know that hon. Members will want to welcome him to
Westminster.
Far too often, carers are invisible to those in positions of
responsibility and authority. They are overwhelmingly women; 72%
of them are women, and often unpaid. They are normal working
people, put in the position of taking care of a loved one. The
huge pressures that they face in taking on that responsibility
for the care of a sick or elderly family member can be
monumental. Today is a good reminder of that.
Carers in Glasgow’s east end find themselves performing a
precarious balancing act, having to balance work, school and
family alongside the intensive act of caring. Not only does
caring often dominate people’s lives, as they have to work around
meal times, medication and doctor’s appointments, but caring also
leaves very little personal time for the carer. As several hon.
Members have referenced, the survey by Carers UK found that 72%
of carers have not had any breaks from caring and 74% are
exhausted and worn out. I think we would all agree that the
situation has only been exacerbated by the pandemic and the
associated lockdowns.
The role of a carer is so often underappreciated and I want to
take a moment to recognise the hard work and dedication of carers
right across these islands. I thank Glasgow North East Carers,
led by Jean McInaw, and East End Community Carers, which I ran
for in the 2018 London Marathon.
Last week, I met representatives of Carers UK to discuss the
pressures that carers are feeling in the cost of living crisis.
As a group, carers are particularly vulnerable to rising costs,
due to the additional costs that come with caring. It is right
that a number of hon. Members have put on the record that the
shameful decision by the Government not to extend the £20 uplift
to legacy benefits very much impacted on carers as well. Let us
not forget that 2.5 million disabled people were literally left
out in the cold by a Government who clearly do not care enough
about them. For carers, food bills may be higher because of
nutritional requirements, transport costs may be higher because
of mobility issues, and all these additional expenses will only
increase in the cost of living crisis.
I must say that it somewhat sticks in my craw to hear Members of
this House talk about a cost of living crisis, because what we
are actually talking about is 12 years of Tory austerity that
just happen to be exacerbated by recent economic turbulence. Let
us not kid ourselves: the cost of living crisis is not a result
of what is happening in Ukraine or global energy prices. The
pressures that our constituents and the most vulnerable in our
society face are a direct consequence of decisions taken by
Conservative Ministers in Whitehall, none of whom were elected in
Scotland.
Those in receipt of carer’s allowance or the carer element of
universal credit will still struggle financially in the cost of
living crisis. That is deeply concerning. Carers UK has already
reported that a quarter of those claiming those benefits have to
use food banks to make ends meet. The UK Government like to talk
about a big society, but they do not want to talk about a broken
society. The very fact that people who are out there working and
caring—saving the state money—are having to be fed by food banks
is an absolute abomination.
The increase in costs is not helped by the fact that many carers
have been forced to reduce their hours or leave employment
entirely in order to care for loved ones. As a result, many
carers face a precarious financial situation. Some 1.2 million
carers are living in poverty. The rising cost of living will
undoubtedly increase the strain on those families who already
face financial pressures.
As a number of hon. Members have mentioned, the Scottish
Government recognise the invaluable work of carers and their
families. The carer’s allowance supplement, which increased
carer’s allowance by 13%, was the first payment to be paid by
Social Security Scotland. Is that increase enough? No, it is not,
but it is a step in the right direction for my constituents in
Easterhouse, Barrowfield and Tollcross.
Over the past two years, the Scottish Government have invested a
further £40 million to provide two extra payments to support
carers through the impacts of the pandemic. Together with the
additional coronavirus carer’s allowance supplement, eligible
carers received an extra £690.30 last year compared with carers
south of the border. In recognition of rising cost of living
pressures, the Scottish Government have now decided to further
increase the eight Scottish benefits by 6%—a change from the
previous plan to uprate by 3.1%. I challenge the Minister to
explain why, if the Scottish Government, with a fixed budget and
without borrowing powers, can uprate benefits by 6%, the UK
Government think it is in any way appropriate to have a
real-terms cut of just 3.1%.
I want to say a word about young carers, who are supported so
well by Glasgow North East Carers in the Easthall area of my
constituency. The SNP’s young carer grant started in October 2019
and supports more than 3,680 young carers in Scotland. We cannot
have this debate in a vacuum and lose sight of the fact that
young carers are playing a crucial role, saving money for the
state, yet many do not even realise that they are in fact
carers.
Many people never imagined that they would be put in the position
of becoming a carer for a loved one. It is difficult, and often
upsetting, to think that one day a loved one would need such
intensive care and support. However, that is why we should all
increase support for carers, because it truly could happen to
anyone whom we represent, and indeed to any one of us in this
Chamber—a point that was highlighted by the hon. Member for
Bolton South East ().
Becoming a carer can be difficult, expensive and a scary labour
of love. It can dominate families for years on end, putting
untold stress and anxiety on people who were, in many cases,
absolutely unprepared to become full-time carers. It is therefore
vital that there is proper support for carers and their families,
from adequate carer’s allowance to funded short breaks to
counselling. Carers across these islands should be appreciated
and valued for their hard work and dedication.
I think it was the hon. Member for Birkenhead () who made the point that warm
words are all well and good, but they are not enough. I am sick
and fed up of standing up in these debates and paying tribute to
people. My constituents who are carers right across the east end
of Glasgow do not just need warm words; they need proper
uprating. That is something that we are providing in Scotland,
but this debate is not an opportunity for whataboutery and for me
to come here and talk about how wonderful things are north of the
border—they could be better—but I have to say to the Minister
that warm words will not cut it. We need proper support for
carers and that is the message that we all look to hear from her
today.
3.30pm
(Lewisham, Deptford)
(Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Bardell.
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull
East () on securing this extremely
important debate. Sadly, carers—especially unpaid carers—seem to
have been long forgotten by this Government, so I genuinely
commend him for raising their plight, particularly around carer’s
allowance. I hope that Ministers will respond positively to the
many important points that my hon. Friend made, in particular
about his constituents the Spamers and the positive impact of the
increase in the national minimum wage. Unfortunately, there has
been a negative impact on carer’s allowance, which we had all
hoped was an oversight. Sadly, that does not seem to be the case,
but this situation can be rectified if Ministers decide to do
so.
As many hon. Members have said today, carers make a vital
contribution to society. They do fantastic work, but we really do
not thank them enough. According to Carers UK, 6.5 million people
are carers—a figure that rose to 13.6 million during covid. Those
people supported a loved one who is older, disabled or seriously
ill. That is one in eight adults who are unpaid carers for family
and friends. Every day 6,000 people become carers, and many do
not know how or where to get help, which can be frightening and
lonely.
I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and
Harlington () for setting up a carers
group and for listening to unpaid carers, who are the experts on
the subject; that is so important. As he rightly said, carers do
not ask for anything, apart from to be able to get by. As my hon.
Friend the Member for Salford and Eccles () highlighted, unpaid
carers are the backbone of our society.
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton South East () for sharing her personal
experience of how tough it is for carers, even if their financial
situation is okay, and for saying how much tougher it is when
their financial situation is not okay.
We all know heartbreaking stories from our constituencies. In my
constituency of Lewisham, Deptford, I have an ongoing case of a
single mother who is a full-time carer for her six-year-old
disabled son, who uses a wheelchair. She supports him while
suffering from depression herself. She is on universal credit and
has been sanctioned for missing an appointment because she was
caring for her disabled child. Instead of offering compassion and
support, this hostile Government decided that it was more
appropriate to reduce her benefits. Having heard stories such as
this time and again, we must all ask ourselves: are we doing
enough to support carers? I am sorry to say that I do not think
we are, especially this Government.
All Labour Members who spoke today said that carer’s allowance
simply is not enough. The Government’s primary support is a
measly £67.60 a week through the carer’s allowance, and that is
only if someone provides care for at least 35 hours a week.
Carers organisations have long argued that the amount of carer’s
allowance payable to carers is insufficient to meet its stated
purpose of providing a replacement income for those who give up
work to look after another person.
That does not even begin to unpack the injustice of not properly
supporting unpaid carers—people who save the state an incredibly
huge amount of money, but receive nothing back. As the hon.
Member for North East Fife () and others pointed out,
charging them for lateral flow tests to keep their loved ones
safe is outrageous. Will the Minister look into scrapping
that?
As my hon. Friend the Member for Cynon Valley () said, carers should not have
to fight for recognition and then beg for money. She highlighted
some excellent work that is taking place in Wales but, as she
said, there is always more that we can and should be doing.
All Members cited the excellent work of Carers UK. Carers UK and
78 other charities, including Z2K, Carers Trust, Age UK and many
disabled people’s organisations, wrote an open letter to the
Chancellor ahead of the spring statement last week. The letter
references recent research by Carers UK that paints a bleak
picture of the coming months as the cost of living crisis
deepens. Among other things, the research found that 42% of
respondents feared that they will not be able to heat their home
to a safe level, and 32% were worried that they will have to use
a food bank.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Worsley and Eccles South () put it so eloquently,
carers are paying many extra costs, including for electrical
ventilators, transport and extra heating. As my hon. Friend the
Member for Birkenhead () said, the Government had the
chance to address that in the spring statement, but they did
nothing.
Last week, during questions to the Department for Work and
Pensions, I raised the issue, pleading with DWP Ministers to
lobby the Chancellor for proper support for disabled people.
Disabled people, including those who are carers and who have
carers, have to make impossible choices between heating their
homes and affording to power life-saving medical equipment in
order to survive. This is a worrying time for many hundreds of
thousands of carers up and down the country.
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull East for
bringing this forgotten-about group back before Ministers. I
commend paid and unpaid carers for their selfless work, helping
people up and down this country. The Government must act and
support carers with a more generous support package—a measly
£67.60 a week for carers will not cut it. If the Minister will
not listen to me, she should listen to the many paid and unpaid
carers, disabled people, disabled people’s organisations,
charities and other civil society organisations pleading with
this Government to act with compassion and to support carers
properly.
3.38pm
The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions ()
It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair today, Ms Bardell.
I thank the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East () for securing this important
debate and for forgoing the chance to speak in the main Chamber,
as he had competing interests. On behalf of his constituents, he
has given us an important opportunity to discuss carer’s
allowance and the vital role that unpaid carers play. I will
leave him some minutes to speak again at the end of the
debate.
We have heard a number of thoughtful contributions, including the
deep personal experience of the hon. Member for Bolton South East
(); I thank her for sharing
that. I thank the hon. Member for Cynon Valley () for mentioning our former
colleague, , and I am grateful to the two
Front Benchers, the hon. Members for Glasgow East () and for Lewisham, Deptford
(), for their
contributions.
Let me begin by taking up the point made by the hon. Member for
Lewisham, Deptford about a carer who was apparently sanctioned
for non-attendance while caring. That sounds like a
misunderstanding of some kind. A sanction should not be applied
where there is good cause for non-attendance and the Department
is notified, so I am happy to take up that case after the debate,
unless the hon. Lady can clarify the position now.
I appreciate the Minister taking up that case afterwards and
thank her for doing so, but this happens all the time. I am sure
that many other Members present will know of such cases, so I do
not think it is an isolated incident.
I will turn to the other detailed points raised in the debate
shortly, but like other hon. Members who have spoken, I also want
to pay tribute to the millions of unpaid carers in this country.
The Government certainly recognise and value the vital
contributions made by carers every single day in providing care
and continuity of support to family and friends, including
pensioners and those with disabilities. More than six out of 10
of us may become a carer at some point during our lives and as
many as 13 million people may be doing some unpaid care. That has
never been more important than during the covid-19 pandemic, when
unpaid carers played a vital role in supporting the most
vulnerable in our society. I will come to some of the points made
in respect of that in a moment.
Like other hon. Members, I see so much of the work that carers do
through my own constituency post bag, such as the experiences
that a Mr W recently shared with me, as well as through disabled
people’s networks. Carers are fortunate enough to have some
wonderful advocates, including their MPs and organisations such
as Carers UK, which has been mentioned a number of times today.
When I met Carers UK earlier this month, I was able to talk about
some of the help that the Government provide to unpaid
carers.
We recognise that people, including carers, are facing pressures
with the cost of living, including higher fuel bills. That is why
we are providing support with the cost of living worth £22
billion across this financial year and next. We have also
promised to legislate so that employees will be entitled to five
days of unpaid care leave per year, and, as hon. Members will
know, we are reforming health and adult social care. I am working
closely with the Minister for Care and Mental Health, my hon.
Friend the Member for Chichester (), on that.
The Minister mentioned the five-day paid care leave, which I
presume will come in the form of an employment Bill. Will she
give a cast-iron guarantee that there will be an employment Bill
in the Gracious Speech that we expect in May, or are we going to
have to wait yet more years for an employment Bill? People cannot
wait any longer.
The hon. Gentleman tempts me down paths that I am afraid I am
unable to go down in this debate, but I look forward very much to
working with him and others to make that goal a reality.
We are spending record amounts to support unpaid carers.
Real-terms expenditure on carer’s allowance is forecast to be
£3.1 billion in 2021-22 and to increase by two fifths by 2026-27,
when the Government are expected to spend just under £4.4 billion
a year on it.
Patterns of care have changed significantly over the last few
decades. People are providing vital unpaid care for relatives and
friends in a whole range of circumstances. Nearly 1 million
people are now receiving carer’s allowance and the weekly rate
will increase to £69.70 in April. Since 2010, it will have
increased from £53.90 to £69.70 a week, providing an additional
£800 a year in cash for carers through the carer’s allowance.
There are additional amounts for carers in universal credit and
other benefits.
I am astonished that the Minister can read out those notes with a
straight face, given what everybody has said. Most Members here
have made the point that a £2 increase is an insult given what we
know about what is happening with the cost of living—even just
with lateral flow tests. How can she read those figures out and
not be ashamed of them?
I am sorry if the hon. Lady thought that that was a useful use of
the minutes we have left, when I have plenty more to say. She
stops me to insult me rather than letting me talk about carers;
that is not particularly helpful.
Like other hon. Members, I want to talk about the rate of carer’s
allowance. I will start with whether it is high enough. The
Government continue to provide financial support to unpaid carers
through carer’s allowance, the carer element in universal credit,
and other benefits. We have chosen to focus extra support on
carers who need it the most. About 360,000 carer households on
universal credit can receive nearly £2,000 year through the carer
element, and that amount will increase from April 2022. Universal
credit is of course a key benefit—indeed, it is the key
benefit—for carers on low incomes, on whom we most need to target
the support. Indeed, carers in receipt of universal credit do not
face the cliff edge identified by the hon. Member for Kingston
upon Hull East in opening the debate.
Will the Minister give way?
I am afraid I need to make progress.
The hon. Member for Salford and Eccles () argued that we need
to increase the rate of carer’s allowance even further to reflect
the current rate of inflation, rather than last September’s rate
of CPI. Of course, the Secretary of State undertakes an annual
review of benefits and pensions; and CPI in the year to
September, as published by the Office for National Statistics, is
the latest figure that the Secretary of State can use to allow
sufficient time for the needed legislative and operational
changes before new rates can be introduced at the start of the
new financial year.
Let me turn to the carer’s allowance earnings limit. Right hon.
and hon. Members have mentioned the limit throughout the debate
and argued that it ought to be increased. Carer’s allowance has
an earnings limit, which permits carers to undertake some
part-time work if they are able to do so. This recognises the
benefits of staying in touch with the workplace, including
greater financial independence and social interaction. In many
cases, carers are keen to work, so we want to encourage them to
combine some paid work with their caring duties, if they wish to
do so and wherever possible. That is why we regularly increase
the earnings limit.
The limit for those in receipt of carer’s allowance will increase
to £132 net earnings a week from this year, which means that the
earnings limit will have increased by about a third since 2010.
Many of those who are receiving carer’s allowance and doing some
work will also be receiving universal credit. In those cases, the
55% taper rate and any applicable work allowance will help to
ensure that people are better off in work, which means more
generous treatment in universal credit of earnings above the
carer’s allowance earnings limit.
Right hon. and hon. Members have mentioned the increases in fuel
bills, which I absolutely recognise. The Government acknowledge
that people are facing pressures with the cost of living,
including rising fuel and heating costs, and Members will know
about the measures announced in the spring statement last week,
which build on the existing support that the Government provide
and will be worth over £22 billion.
A number of schemes are in place to help with heating costs,
depending on carers’ circumstances. They include the winter fuel
payment, the cold weather payment and the warm home discount. I
recognise the argument made by the hon. Members for Salford and
Eccles and for Bolton South East about extending the warm home
discount to carers. I think they will know that colleagues in the
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy recently
consulted on the scheme and announced that automatic rebates will
be extended from those getting the guarantee credit in pension
credit to include other low-income households whose homes are
fuel inefficient.
The hon. Member for Worsley and Eccles South () and others made the point
that it is important that carers apply for all the support that
might be available to them. Many working-age carers receive
means-tested benefits as well as carer’s allowance, and I have
already mentioned universal credit. Pensioner carers may be able
to receive pension credit, which includes an additional amount
for carers. Very importantly, receiving a means-tested benefit
can act as a passport to other support, so if carers are not
already receiving a means-tested benefit, I encourage them to
look at gov.uk or to seek other advice, to see whether they might
be entitled to that.
Will the Minister clarify the percentage increase that was asked
about by my right hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington
()?
Which percentage increase?
I think there was a mention of 3.1%, but I am not sure if I heard
the Minister properly.
The hon. Gentleman will recognise that as the September CPI
figure. Yes, I can confirm that the figure is 3.1%.
I want to add a point about the personal independence payment.
For some households where caring is taking place, it will be
highly relevant. It is extremely relevant to the point that
several Members have made about the extra costs that disabled
people face. That is recognised, and it is exactly what the
personal independence payment is for. Again, I encourage carers
to ensure that they or their household look at that.
The hon. Members for Kingston upon Hull East and for Worsley and
Eccles South raised points about the end of life. I want to make
sure that hon. Members are aware that the Government are
improving the so-called special rules for terminal illness and
end of life. Two statutory instruments have already been laid and
primary legislation will follow to ensure that, across five
benefits, that when they are in those very challenging
circumstances people can get the support they need earlier.
Some hon. Members mentioned disabled or unwell children. I want
to make sure that colleagues are aware of the special educational
needs and disabilities review that was published yesterday.
Low-income families with seriously ill or disabled people will be
further supported through £27.3 million of funding next year,
which could help pay for equipment, goods or services that those
families might not otherwise be able to afford.
Let me move on to the position for Scotland and Wales. Hon.
Members have asked why the Administrations differ in their
approach. The UK Government’s focus is to support those carers
most in need through universal credit. In Scotland, as mentioned
by the hon. Members for North East Fife () and for Glasgow East,
additional amounts are paid to carers by the Scottish Government
through their carer’s allowance supplement, using their powers
under devolution and their own resources. That is done regardless
of the carer’s means. We think it is a better approach to focus
extra support on carers on the lowest incomes, and I have already
mentioned how that is done through universal credit.
I acknowledge the desire of the hon. Member for Cynon Valley to
expand devolved powers in Wales, as well. I do not have time to
engage fully with that point today, but I understand the
arguments she makes and I look forward to responding to the Welsh
Affairs Committee’s report.
The hon. Member for North East Fife mentioned how unpaid carers
had been supported during the pandemic and spoke about the policy
on lateral flow tests. I want to ensure that she is aware that my
Department worked with the NHS and Public Health England to share
data so that unpaid carers had priority access to vaccines. It
was very important for different parts of Government to work
together to do such things for the benefit of those who needed
the vaccinations the most at that time. I will ensure that
Ministers in the Department of Health and Social Care are aware
of the points raised by the hon. Lady about lateral flow
tests.
I will draw my remarks to a conclusion to leave enough time for
the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East to close his debate.
We all agree that society relies on unpaid carers in many ways.
They are appreciated and deeply important in their households. We
recognise the challenges they face and we are helping carers with
the rises in the cost of living, reforming social care and
helping carers to stay in work. We are spending record amounts on
the carer’s allowance and providing unpaid carers with the help
and support that they need and deserve. I am grateful for the
range of points that have been made today, all of which will be
very helpful in examining how we need to go forward. I hope that
the contributions made today will help carers to know that we in
this Chamber are thinking of them. Thank you for your
chairmanship, Ms Bardell.
3.53pm
I thank you personally, Ms Bardell, for allowing me to leave the
Chamber to speak on the P&O statement by the Secretary of
State in the main Chamber. I thank all Members for attending and
for their incredibly instructive contributions to the debate. We
all have constituents who are—if I can put it like this—truly at
the sharp end of this anomaly.
I thank the shadow Minister, my colleague and hon. Friend the
Member for Lewisham, Deptford (), who has been incredibly
helpful in helping me to prepare for the debate. Some of this
stuff, frankly, is quite complex. I have benefited from her
incredible knowledge in this area.
I know the Minister a bit, and I think that she cares. I do not
intend to be personal. However, the people who rely on this
support are at the sharp end. They truly do not know whether they
can afford to live; some of them are worried about using their
electricity supply, which they need to operate the apparatus that
is keeping their loved ones in the family home. Frankly, I am not
convinced that the Government care quite enough. This is not a
lifestyle choice. As we have heard, it could happen to any one of
us—we could end up being a carer. People do not choose to do it.
They do it because they need to, and they provide the most
valuable service to society.
I know that the Minister has the power. She can leave here now,
go to her Department and make changes that will affect these
carers so that they do not have to rely on Treasury civil
servants and Ministers and their spreadsheets that say no.
Actions can be taken, and I very much hope she will do that.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That this House has considered carer’s allowance.
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