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Personal Care at Home Bill

I am grateful. The hon. Gentleman is quite right that the words we use in this place matter greatly, but I think that when he checks the record he will find that in my introductory remarks I used the word "assets" rather than saying "their own home"—quite deliberately, because of the distinction that he has rightly pointed out. The question of one's own home becomes relevant only at the time when one is being adjudged by proper assessment criteria as needing to leave that home in order to go permanently—or where it is expected to be permanent—into a residential care or other home setting. As we go through these definitional issues, it is important to recognise that these are real situations often involving vulnerable people in emergency situations.