Disability Living Allowance

Tony Baldry Excerpts

Wednesday 9th March 2011 Westminster Hall

[Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)]

As co-chair, with Baroness Pitkeathley, of the all-party group on carers, I am grateful to be given the opportunity to speak in this debate. The reforms will affect carers as much as they will affect those who are being cared for. The hon. Member for Arfon (Hywel Williams), who introduced the debate, said that his main concern is about the mobility component of DLA for those in care homes. That is the matter that I wish to discuss.

In a letter to all parliamentary colleagues, the Minister states:

“We want support for care home residents which takes account of their individual needs and safeguards some of the most vulnerable members of our society, whilst also ensuring that the taxpayer is not paying twice for this provision. It is vital that we get this reform right, and that is why we are taking the time to do so.”

It is helpful that Ministers have decided to postpone any decision until 2013. I know that the Minister has taken enormous personal care to ensure that the Government get this right. I was grateful that, following our last debate on the issue, the Minister kindly came to Banbury and visited Agnes Court, which is a home run by Leonard Cheshire in my constituency.

I am trying to sort out in my mind how we approach the matter, and I have a number of questions that I wish to ask. As I understand it, Ministers are saying that local authorities, in the contract that they have with care homes, should provide sufficient funding for residents to have the opportunity for independent living. It would be helpful for hon. Members if the Department for Work and Pensions explained that route. Where in primary legislation is the responsibility on local authorities to provide for that element when residents go into residential care? That is an important point because if one does not have an understanding of the statutory basis upon which local authorities have that responsibility, apart from anything else, it is difficult to know when one could bring judicial review on the basis that they were not providing that which Ministers say that they should provide. Part of the reason for these reforms is that Ministers say there is an overlap and duplication of funding. We need to understand exactly where it is said that such duplication is occurring.

I also have a slight concern that if one puts a greater responsibility on local authorities to provide an increase in the contract fee that they pay to residential care homes, a number of local authorities will say that rather than sending those who may need care in a residential setting into residential care, they will try to provide them with care at home. The Minister met one or possibly two residents of Agnes Court in relation to whom the local authority funding their place is considering withdrawing funding because it is finding it too expensive and it wants the person to be supported at home or elsewhere.

We need to have an understanding of what Ministers believe should be the model contract between local authorities and care homes, and what the obligations on the residential care homes are in relation to this. Let me make it absolutely clear that everyone is doing their best in what are often very difficult circumstances. What was clear from talking to people at Agnes Court is that they have very little contact with the local authority. The local authority obviously rightly believes that Leonard Cheshire Disability runs a fantastic home and provides a fantastic service and that there is no need for a local authority to find out what is going on there. What is the model contract? What is it that Ministers believe, first, that local authorities should be funding and, secondly, that they should be requiring of care homes?

The Minister will have met people in Agnes Court who have used the mobility component of DLA to purchase a wheelchair of superior quality to that which they could have obtained through the NHS—one person in particular has certainly done so. I am talking about a very bright man who has been a long-term resident of Agnes Court. He is almost blind, but his intellect is razor sharp, as I know from the letters and e-mails he has sent to me over many years. Indeed, at one general election, he organised a hustings for parliamentary candidates, so that we could discuss disability issues. He has used his mobility competent to buy a wheelchair, which seems a sensible thing to do given his circumstances. Would that be possible if the funding were coming through a local authority contract to the residential care home?

[Nicky Morgan (Loughborough) (Con)]

I entirely agree with my hon. Friend about how helpful the Minister has been in responding to constituents’ concerns on the matter—her letters have been very much appreciated. Does he agree that some of the points that are unclear relate not only to the overlap between what the local authority should fund and what is covered by DLA, but to the activities that local authorities will pay for? Constituents have told me that local authorities fund travel only to a doctor’s appointment or to day care, and not to enable disabled people to participate in everyday activities. Such activities are important to them, but might not be important to the care home or the local authority.

[Tony Baldry]

My hon. Friend makes an incredibly good point. I—and I suspect many hon. Members—would like and welcome a route map from the DWP. I sometimes feel that policy relating to that Department is a bit of a secret garden. I am always a bit reticent about entering into the garden, because I usually use the wrong words—the mobility component of disability living allowance for those in residential care, is in itself quite a mouthful.

What is it—I entirely agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Loughborough (Nicky Morgan)—that we, or those in residential care settings, can expect to be provided? After all, let us remember that what we have here are a very wide range of human beings who are individuals and constituents. Stephen Argyll, the person to whom I just referred, is intellectually very bright, but almost blind and has difficulty getting around. Some are in Agnes Court because they have learning difficulties, and some are there because they are suffering distressingly from degenerative illnesses, such as Parkinson’s disease. There is not just one group of people, but a large number of individual human beings who have different histories. For example, many are married and still wish to maintain their relationship with their husbands or wives, go shopping, and so on. I also understand, however, that Ministers are concerned that this can be an expensive provision, if what is being provided are individual, tailored mobility vehicles that are not being used much each week by individual people. If there is an overlap with other funding that is supposed to go to care homes from the local authority, that is also a concern.

[David Simpson]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Tony Baldry]

I am conscious that lots of other hon. Members, including, I am sure, many from Northern Ireland, wish to take part in the debate.

I suspect that all of us want to engage constructively with constituents who have concerns about this matter, but we want to do so positively and be conscious of the legitimate concerns of Ministers that the system is not working. The Minister has stated:

“We will not remove the mobility of disabled people but we will remove the overlaps and gaps inherent in the current system.”

I want to understand where the Minister sees the overlaps. Where does she see the gaps? Please can we have a lay person’s guide that we, as colleagues, can take when we talk to constituents in this situation, so that they understand the issues and that we understand the examination question that we have been set. I know that there is an exam, but I am not confident yet that I fully understand the examination question.

I appreciate that the decision has been delayed until 2013, but Ministers will at some point have to be clear, and send a clear signal about post-2013, for the following reason. The Minister will have met, when she was at Agnes Court, large numbers of people who have entered into leases and other contractual arrangements for mobility vehicles. There need to be transitional arrangements so that if there is a change in the regime and the rules in 2013, people do not suddenly find themselves with a period of time to pay a contract without the wherewithal to do so. If Ministers are coming to the view that at some point they will change the rules, it would probably be helpful to give a clear signal of their intentions so that people have a clear understanding of that and make dispositions accordingly.