Care Bill clears the Lords

The Care Bill has cleared the House of Lords after peers approved the legislation at third reading on 29 October 2013.
The bill, which introduces a cap on the cost of social care and gives carers the legal right to support from their local council, now goes to the House of Commons for further scrutiny.

A new duty will be placed on local authorities to promote an individual’s physical, mental and emotional wellbeing when determining their care.

Conservative peers Lord Hamilton of Epsom and Lord Cormack led an attempt to require local authorities to also take into account a person’s spiritual wellbeing.

Lord Hamilton said this was already a commitment for the National Health Service, and asked why this could not be the same for local authorities.

“If an individual desires to have their spiritual wellbeing promoted, the local authority would be required to do that. If on the other hand the individual expresses no desire to have his spiritual needs attended to then he would not get any form of spiritual counselling,” the peer explained.

But Health Minister Earl Howe said the amendment was unnecessary. He offered, in the form of his own amendment, to require local authorities to include a reference to “beliefs”, which would incorporate spiritual beliefs.

Lord Hamilton decided to test the opinion of the House, but his amendment was convincingly rejected by 271 votes to 96, a majority of 175. The government’s amendment was then passed unopposed.

‘Stone dead’

Later, Labour peer Lord Lipsey bid to stop the government from restricting eligibility for a scheme that enables people to defer their care payments until after death.

Under government plans, only those with non-housing assets less than £23,250 would be eligible for the deferred payment scheme, under which a local council pays an individual’s care fees and claims them back from their estate after death.

But Lord Lipsey, who used to sit on the Royal Commission on the Long-term Care of the Elderly, said the threshold would “kill the scheme stone dead”, as it would exclude “most people who would sensibly take advantage” of it.

Opposition spokesman Lord Hunt of Kings Heath said he accepted the scheme was not intended to be available to the very wealthy and asset-rich, but the cap was “far too restrictive to deliver a viable scheme”.

Health Minister Earl Howe, responding, said the consultation on the government’s proposals had only been closed for a week and minister were “happy” to consider a range of thresholds, including a figure of £118,000 suggested by Lord Lipsey.

Lord Lipsey agreed to withdraw his amendment after Lord Howe’s comments.