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900161

registered interest
date	08/05/2018
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Carers
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of carers; what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of increasing the level of carer’s allowance to the existing level of contributions-based jobseeker’s allowance for people aged 25 and over; and what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of increasing the carer premium by the current difference between carer’s allowance and contributions-based jobseeker’s allowance for people aged 25 and over.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	141782
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/05/2018 answer text <p>The level of Carer’s Allowance (CA) is protected by uprating it annually in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Since 2010 the rate of CA has increased from £53.90 to £64.60 a week, meaning an additional £550 a year for carers. In 2022/23 the Government is forecast to spend £3.7 billion on CA, a 36% real terms increase in expenditure on 2016/17.</p><p> </p><p>Additionally, carers have access to the full range of social security benefits according to their circumstances. There are carer “premiums” in income-related benefits, such as Income Support, Housing Benefit and Universal Credit. These amounts recognise the additional contribution and responsibilities associated with caring and mean that lower-income carers can receive more than others who receive these benefits. For example, in 2017, 6 out of ten households on Universal Credit with a Carer Entitlement recorded received a Monthly Award Amount of over £400: this is in addition to any CA they may receive.</p><p> </p><p>According to the Family Resources Survey (2016/17), there were an estimated 5.4 million informal carers in the United Kingdom in 2016/17. Only some of these receive Carer’s Allowance.</p><p> </p><p>DWP can provide a broad illustrative gross cost of paying an extra £8.50 a week (the current difference between the rate of CA and the Jobseeker’s Allowance over 25 rate) to 810,000 CA recipients (rounded down CA in-payment cases in Great Britain, August 2017). This would have cost in the region of £360m in 2018/19. (Around 9% of this expenditure covers carers living in Scotland where CA will shortly be devolved to the Scottish Government.) Actual costs will also be affected by possible behavioural impacts, such as whether the higher rates of benefit will encourage more people to claim CA and, therefore, may be higher than the indicative forecast costs. The information requested on premiums is not available.</p> answering member constituency Truro and Falmouth answering member printed Sarah Newton question first answered 15/05/2018 11:44:47 answering member 4071 label Biography information for Sarah Newton
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

428151

registered interest
date	13/11/2015
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Carers
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will carry out an assessment after the November Spending Review of local authorities' capacity to meet their new duties under the Care Act 2014 following changes to local authority funding.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	16245
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/11/2015 answer text <br /><p>Funding decisions for 2016/17 onwards, including on adult social care, are subject to the forthcoming Spending Review.</p><br /><p>Officials in the Department and across government are working hard to understand pressures on the care system and will consider adult social care expenditure and the future demand as part of this process. This includes ongoing Care Act pressures.</p><p><br>We will continue to review and monitor implementation of the Care Act which includes a series of stocktakes of local authority readiness and the latest, from June 2015, demonstrates an overall positive picture on implementation. It details:</p><p><br>- Councils’ confidence in their ability to deliver the Care Act Reforms in 2015/16 remains high, with 99% very or fairly confident.</p><p>- 89% of councils say that they are ‘on track’ with their implementation. The remaining 11% report themselves as only slightly behind.</p><br /><p>There are two further local authority stocktakes planned for the remainder of the financial year which will monitor the progress on implementing change. It is our intention to repeat the surveys next year to continue monitoring progress, subject to agreement with local government.</p><p><br>The Department will also commission a piece of research to evaluate and inform implementation of the Care Act 2014. The research will focus on knowing more about how the Act is being implemented locally and to see how effectively the Act is achieving its underlying aims.</p><br /> answering member constituency North East Bedfordshire answering member printed Alistair Burt question first answered 23/11/2015 16:24:13 answering member 1201 label Biography information for Alistair Burt
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

428156

registered interest
date	13/11/2015
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Carers
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will create a database for local authorities on best practice in meeting their new duties under the Care Act 2014.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	16247
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/11/2015 answer text <p>To support implementation of the Care Act, a joint Programme Management Office between the Department, the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Association of Directors of Adults Social Services (ADASS) has been established. This unprecedented partnership is driving collaborative working with the care sector, influencing the local implementation of these changes to support a consistent and coherent approach across the country. Earlier this year this approach was recognised by the National Audit Office as best practice and recommended it should be adopted by other similar work programmes.</p><br /><p>As part of this programme of work the Department has provided £2.7 million to nine regional local government networks to enable them to commission tools, products and non-statutory guidance to help local authorities in implementing the Care Act. The care sector has been involved in developing these materials and making sure they meet required standards. The materials focus on areas of key risk and challenge identified by local authorities and support the development of best practice. The Department also provided £4 million in 2015-16 for the ADASS to give local authorities targeted support and to help share best practice. Information on good practice, research and innovation aimed at improving the social care infrastructure is available at the following website.</p><br /><p><a href="https://www.adass.org.uk/support-and-resources/" target="_blank">https://www.adass.org.uk/support-and-resources/</a></p><br /><p>In addition the LGA has included information on its website that details available learning and development resources, best practice guidance and practical tools to support the care sector. It also details the regional support available in each of the nine local government regions to help councils to implement the Care Act. The website is available at:</p><p><a href="http://www.local.gov.uk/care-support-reform;jsessionid=B36A65C6DFFB6012739EB96FDBE5918B.tomcat2" target="_blank">http://www.local.gov.uk/care-support-reform;jsessionid=B36A65C6DFFB6012739EB96FDBE5918B.tomcat2</a></p><br /><p>The support work described above is part of a wider package of Sector-Led Improvement that the Department has funded the LGA and ADASS to deliver, under the umbrella of the Towards Excellence in Adult Social Care (TEASC) programme. The culture of Sector-Led Improvement, and the TEASC programme, are based on the principles that local authorities are responsible for their own performance, and are collectively responsible for the performance of the sector as a whole. This includes an ongoing commitment to share experience, advice and best practice at a regional and national level.</p><br /><p><strong></strong></p><br /> answering member constituency North East Bedfordshire answering member printed Alistair Burt question first answered 23/11/2015 15:25:08 answering member 1201 label Biography information for Alistair Burt
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

423776

registered interest
date	26/10/2015
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Carers
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the report by Carers Trust entitled A Charge on Caring?, published on 16 September 2015, if he will take steps to prohibit local authorities from charging unpaid carers for support.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	13255
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/11/2015 answer text <p>The Government recognises the valuable contribution made by carers, many of whom spend a significant proportion of their life providing support to family members or friends.</p><br /><p>The Care Act guidance is clear about policy on charging carers. The Care Act statutory guidance, at paragraph 8.50 states that:</p><br /><p>“Local authorities are not required to charge a carer for support and indeed in many cases it would be a false economy to do so. When deciding whether to charge, and in determining what an appropriate charge is, a local authority should consider how it wishes to express the way it values carers within its local community as partners in care, and recognise the significant contribution carers make.”</p><br /><p>The Care Act replicates the previous position where charging carers was permissible and the Government has no plans to change this. It would not have been appropriate to impose a blanket ban on charging for carers services, because in some cases small charges are necessary to the viability of services. However, the Care Act provides additional protection to carers by making it clear that local authorities cannot charge carers for services provided to the person being cared for. This means that carers may only be charged for services provided directly to them.</p><br /><p>Most local authorities do not routinely charge carers in recognition of the valuable contribution carers make to their local communities, and the Carers Trust report confirms that this is still the case. We will continue to make the case against routine charging of carers and to monitor the situation closely.</p> answering member constituency North East Bedfordshire answering member printed Alistair Burt question first answered 03/11/2015 16:20:25 answering member 1201 label Biography information for Alistair Burt
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham