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Personal Care at Home Bill

The Minister tempts me, but I will not do so. The hon. Member for Leeds, North-West (Greg Mulholland) asks about a March election. For that to happen, it must be called at the end of February, but the consultation on the regulations on this legislation will conclude only on about 23 February. Clearly, the Bill is more about propaganda for a general election than the delivery of social care reform after it. None the less, we are debating the structure of care reform. There are two serious problems with some of the options presented in the Green Paper. First—I will not go on at great length about this because we debated it in Opposition time last Tuesday—there is serious difficulty with the Government's intention to integrate disability benefits into the national care service funding. Of course, the Government did a U-turn last Tuesday and completely changed the proposal to integrate for current benefit recipients. It is fascinating that the Government are now proposing that over-65s who receive attendance allowance—let us say £60 a week on average—and disability living allowance should have that money taken away, so that it can be given to the local authority and then given back to them to spend in exactly the same way.