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Carers

It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir John. I do not know about you, but at times during this debate I have felt hardly entitled to contribute at all, not having been to Australia—rather like the hon. Member for West Bromwich, West (Mr. Bailey). Despite that, I intend to add a few comments. I have listened intently to this important and timely debate. I thank the Select Committee, which has produced a thorough and well-researched report, and particularly the Committee Chairman who introduced it. As constituency Members of Parliament, I think that we have all been touched by the dedication and hard work of the carers whom we have come across. The hon. Member for Aberdeen, South (Miss Begg) gave us some examples from her constituency. It is impossible to say with total accuracy how many informal carers there are in the UK at this moment—one estimate is around 6 million—but one thing we know for sure is that that figure will rise as people live longer and the demographics change in the next few decades. One reads a great deal in the papers about the so-called sandwich generation, of which I regard myself as a member: people who are looking after both children and elderly parents. Only the other day, there was a report on the number of such carers who are drawing down from their own pension pots to look after their own parents. As the Committee's report rightly mentions, based on the Leeds university study, carers save the Treasury an estimated £87 billion a year, which, as has been pointed out, is a sum greater than the entire annual budget for the national health service. Unfortunately, not a lot of that money is passed on to the carers themselves. The report says that caring has a sustainable impact on carers' incomes. We have heard all sorts of evidence to that effect this afternoon. Research by Carers UK found that carers lose out on about £11,000 a year as a result of either giving up work, reducing their hours or taking a junior position. This loss of income is hardly replaced by the £53 a week, from April, that they will get in carer's allowance. Astonishingly, the Government do not know the current take-up rate for carer's allowance. The latest report—I mean ““latest””, because it only appeared in the early hours of this morning—from the National Audit Office states that estimating the take-up rate is incredibly complex because it is based on the take-up rates of other benefits. We have heard something about that from other hon. Members. However, according to the Department's own longitudinal study, of the 882,800 carers entitled to carer's allowance in May 2008 only 480,730 claimed it. That is the equivalent of £740 million in carers' benefits going unclaimed in a single year. It is remarkable that the Government's own carers strategy failed to address directly this rather obvious problem with the benefits system, given the amount of invaluable service that carers give not just to those they care for, but to the state and the taxpayer. As we have seen, the eligibility criteria for carer's allowance are complicated. A carer must provide service for over 35 hours a week to a person receiving a qualifying disability benefit. Such strict criteria leave little room for manoeuvre. As has been said several times, carers who care for more than one individual for less than 35 hours a week each cannot receive carer's allowance. Age Concern and Help the Aged rightly pointed out in their joint briefing note:"““Fundamentally, the current benefit system is financially inadequate for carers, discouraging to claimants, and far too complex.””" The Government's response to the report acknowledged that the current system of carers' benefits lacks regard for the different situations and needs of carers. If a carer needs more flexibility to balance caring and working—because, per hour of service, the carer's allowance sits well below minimum wage—the Government provide little advice or guidance. The National Audit Office report is not very flattering. It finds that a fifth of carers still have difficulties in applying for carer's allowance and it mentions the fact that the Department does not actually know the real level of take-up. It also reveals that while Jobcentre Plus is the main source of employment support for carers, only about one third of Jobcentre Plus personal advisers believe that carers receive the support that they need or should expect. More than 70 per cent. of those who had contacted Jobcentre Plus for employment support in the past year found that its services were not well suited to their personal circumstances as carers. My party is working on ways to simplify the benefits system so that the take-up of those key benefits is improved, and my hon. Friend the Member for Henley (John Howell) spoke about that. Several hon. Members talked about the holy grail in this area—a single working age benefit. I am not trying to raise the temperature of the debate at this late stage, but in many ways the Government's response was dismissive to some important points in the report. Paragraph 32 of the response states:"““The White Paper confirms that the Department remains attracted to the idea of a single working age benefit””—" so far, so good—"““and will continue to explore whether, over the longer term, this is the right approach.””" That choice of words does not suggest that a single working age benefit is top of the Minister's in-tray, but I agree with hon. Members who have said that perhaps it should be. I take the point that the hon. Member for Bradford, North (Mr. Rooney) and others made that we should not let the best be the enemy of the good and do nothing because we hope one day to reach that nirvana when everything will be perfect. However, we need a bit more enthusiasm from the Minister for getting on with this. Without access to flexible work schemes, many unpaid carers are unable to continue working, so a future Conservative Government will ensure that every unpaid carer has the right to ask for flexible working hours so that they can manage their career and caring responsibilities in the best possible way. That is something that my hon. Friend raised.