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Dementia Services

The hon. Gentleman has to be very clear. I am interested to hear what he will say about this, as he intervened earlier on other colleagues. It is quite clear that, if a couple are in their own home and one of them goes into residential care, the home is disregarded when it comes to assessing the means of that couple, because somebody is still living in the home. It is only when the second person goes into residential care —if they both have that misfortune—that the home will be assessed. A deferred payment scheme should operate, and I hope that such a scheme operates in his area, which would mean that that home would not have to be sold until neither of the couple remain alive. Those are two different points, one of which was made by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State in response to an earlier intervention. I hope that the hon. Gentleman will accept that knowing that fact—in other words, not being ignorant of it—might help him to represent his constituent's case.