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Carers

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making that point, which I fully agree with. Similar examples in my area give me concern. Direction from the Government is needed to deal with the problem. They must say, ““We want a national network of centres and we are prepared to will the means to do it.”” As part of willing the means, the Government must provide the core funding for such centres—for example, the one in Harrogate. Children's centres provide an example of how that could be done. One of the big things that the Government have done, which is excellent, is provide a children's centre in every constituency. I fully praise the Government for that; it is tremendous. However, they willed the means and said, ““We want it.”” They put the money in, worked with local authorities and got it. That is brilliant and the Government should do the same for carers. The Government's current attitude, which is reflected in their response, is a do-nothing attitude, and that it should be left to social services and the local authorities. That is not good enough. The second point that I want to make is about the general support for carers. When I intervened on my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble), I mentioned the astonishing fact that the Government have basically said that they do not accept that the general level of support for carers is too low. Will the Minister specifically address that? Do the Government think that the general level of support for carers is not too low? I am interested to hear his response, because we know that at £50.55 the carer's allowance is the lowest earnings replacement allowance. Thoughts run through my mind of the recent programme, ““Rab C. Nesbitt””, which is probably one of the funniest programmes on television. The MP in the programme says, ““I can go and live off that,”” and is taken down the pub in Glasgow, or wherever it is, and he spends all his money there. Could the Minister live off £50.55—let alone care for someone as well? I do not think so, otherwise I would say that he should go to live with Rab Nesbitt and try it, but I will not make that particular suggestion. The Government make two points. They identify that the issue of carer's benefit will be a priority from 2011. That is too long to wait. Where is the plan now? The other fallback argument is complexity. The issue of a carer's allowance is complex, which has been brought out in today's speeches. Is the carer's allowance an income replacement? What should we do for carers who are in work? What should we do for full-time carers? We might need different approaches, but the current figure is too low for all those people. A further point is that pensioners who are carers get quite a poor deal in the current system. They think that they will get some extra cash when they take on caring duties, but they do not. Some people suddenly find that they are caring for a second person. When I was on the ““Politics Show””, I spoke to a splendid woman who was caring for her husband, who had had a stroke. Suddenly, she had to care for her son as well, and she told me that there was not a penny of extra support in such circumstances. I do not think that that is fair, either. My last point is based on a briefing that we received from the Parkinson's Disease Society, which includes a worrying point that I ask the Minister to address. The briefing states:"““We are especially disappointed that, in spite of claims that no reform of Carer's Allowance will take place until a major reform of carers' benefits, the Welfare Reform Bill contains plans [Clause 12 (1) (b)] to remove Adult Dependency Increases from those in receipt of Carer's Allowance—up to £30.20 a week at the current rate. The table on page 80 of the Impact Assessment accompanying the Bill confirms that: 'There will be a reduction in income for some carers.'””" Will the Minister comment on that? If it is likely to be the case, that part of the Welfare Reform Bill needs to be revisited. If the plan is to do one review of the whole, and that is why there is delay, at least delay that aspect as well. People may think that I say such things because I am an old left-winger, or even a young left-winger, but I believe that millions of people up and down the country share my concern. If the Government can put a lot of money in for the bankers—rightly, because, as we all know, we need to keep the economic system going—why can they not do more for carers?