• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / News Archive / Personal care bill passes Commons hurdle

Personal care bill passes Commons hurdle

By guest on 2nd January 2010 Category: News Archive

Listen

A government bill to introduce free personal care at home for disabled people with the highest needs has completed its progress through the Commons.

But elements of the personal care at home bill faced severe criticism, particularly from Conservative MPs.

The government says the bill will benefit 110 000 people with the highest needs who currently pay for some or all of their personal care at home, including 20,000 younger disabled adults.

It will also provide intensive “re-ablement” support for around 130,000 people who need home care for the first time.

But Conservative shadow health minister Stephen O’Brien said the bill went “utterly against the grain of the government’s green paper on social care, not least because it is being funded from general taxation”.

He said the £250 million council efficiency savings the government said would part-fund the bill had been “plucked…out of the air” and if they could not be found they would “have to come from cuts or increases in charges”.

He added: “The biggest concern is that increases in charges will fall on those with substantial, moderate or low care needs.”

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Greg Mulholland said the bill would help “only a tiny number” of people affected by the worsening “social care crisis”.

Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat shadow health secretary, said his party was concerned that the bill’s costs would “keep rising”, that it would provide an incentive for councils to “push people into care homes” and that the wealthiest older people would benefit most.

But care services minister Phil Hope said the bill was “an elegant way” to achieve the goal of supporting people “with the greatest possible needs” in their own homes.

He said councils could cuts costs by developing “preventive” and “re-ablement” services.

He said: “We are consulting widely on how the system will work and how people will be assessed.

“I want councils to have flexibility over how they resource the free personal care offer, while we ensure consistency across the country over who receives it.”

The bill will now be debated in the Lords, where it will undergo more detailed scrutiny and is predicted to face tougher opposition.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has also published its briefing on the bill, in which it “broadly welcomes” free personal care for those with critical needs, but expresses concerns that the bill “appears to cut across” options laid out in the green paper, and could lead to reduced support for those with less critical needs.

The commission said the government’s forthcoming care and support white paper should set out “a comprehensive vision of better care for all and how it will be properly funded”.

14 January 2010

Share this post:

Share on X (Twitter)Share on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on RedditShare on LinkedIn
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Related

‘Muddled’ blue badge reforms ‘are to blame for renewal delays’
6th February 2015
UN debate will be reminder of true inclusive education
6th February 2015
IDS breaks pledge on PIP waiting-times, as tens of thousands still queue for months
30th January 2015

Primary Sidebar

On the left of the image are multiple heads of different colours - white, aqua, red, light brown, and dark green - all grouped together, then the words ‘Campaign for Disability Justice. Sign up to support. #OpportunitySecurityRespect’
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Access

Latest Stories

Disabled MP who quit government over benefit cuts tells DNS: ‘The consequences will be devastating’

Disabled peers plan to ‘amend, amend, amend, amend, amend’ after assisted dying bill reaches Lords

Minister finally admits that working-age benefits spending is stable, despite months of ‘spiralling’ claims

This bill opens the door to scandal, abuse and injustice, disabled activists say after assisted dying bill vote

Timms says cuts must go ahead, despite being reminded of risk that disabled claimants could die

Absence of disabled people’s voices from assisted dying bill has been ‘astonishing’, says disabled MP

Timms misleads MPs on DWP transparency and cover-ups, as he gives evidence on PIP review

Ministers are considering further extension to disability hate crime laws, after pledge on ‘aggravated’ offences

Making all self-driving pilot schemes accessible would be ‘counter-productive’ and slow us down, says minister

Involve disabled people ‘meaningfully’ from the start when developing digital assistive tech, says report

Advice and Information

Readspeaker
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Threads
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2025 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web