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Mr. Bowis: I can reassure both the hon. Member for Monklands, West and the right hon. Member for Wythenshawe that their worries have been taken into account. I understand the mystification that can occur when different funds and different benefits have different rules. There are, of course, similarities with the independent living fund, but there are also differences. The ILF provides funding for personal care for a small group of severely disabled people. With direct payments in lieu of community services, services will go much further--including such services as day care outside the home, provision of aid and adaptations and residential care.
The hon. Member for Monklands, West is quite right. In Committee, I announced the results of our consideration of the consultation exercise and announced that we would proceed with the regulations and the guidance. Those are two separate matters, to which I shall return to address the points made by the right hon. Member for Wythenshawe.
The regulations which we propose will prevent people from using direct payments to employ close relatives living in the same household. The guidance will also tell local authorities not to make direct payments in cases where the recipient intends to use them to secure services from a close relative living elsewhere or from someone else living in the same household, unless that person has been recruited as a live-in personal assistant. Local authorities will be able to make exceptions to the guidance when they are satisfied that there is no satisfactory alternative.
The problems that we are seeking to avoid are the difficulty of enforcing contracts with relatives and the pressure to employ a relative who would not necessarily have been the disabled person's first choice--a problem that can arise whether or not the relative shares the home and whether or not someone sharing the home is a relative. On the basis of those problems, the people whom we consulted on this matter reached the conclusion--the conclusion that we have reached--that we must have restrictions. That is why we have decided to proceed with the guidance and the regulations.
Local authorities will have discretion to make exceptions to the guidance when circumstances merit it. The hon. Member for Monklands, West mentioned two circumstances: sparse population and strong cultural preference. I stress that exceptions can be made for other reasons and are not limited to those two. The guidance will make that clear.
In contrast, the amendment would weaken the presumption against someone who falls into one of those categories and would allow local authorities to disregard the regulations. If we were to accept these amendments, that would seriously undermine the restrictions that we propose. The discretion that we intend to allow will be sufficient to make exceptions when there are no suitable alternatives.
It would not be appropriate to make exceptions to the restrictions in regulations. I do not believe that a straightforward employer-employee relationship is possible between two close relatives sharing the same household.
The restrictions we propose will protect disabled people's independence and were supported by responses to the consultation exercise. I believe that they will create the best framework for direct payments. I hope that I have been able to satisfy the hon. Member for Monklands, West and the right hon. Member for Wythenshawe.
Mr. Tom Clarke:
Being generous of nature, I would like to tell the Minister that he has satisfied me, but I would be less than truthful if I did. However, we have carefully considered what he said, and I think that discussions on this matter will continue. As we are well on the way to enacting the Bill, it will be useful to consider what happens at local level, particularly in relation to this matter. I am sure that the dialogue that the Minister has conducted--of which we are aware and have tried to emulate--will continue.
I look forward, perhaps in a year's time, to having perhaps some influence on the review that will consider the Bill. In that very generous spirit, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Mr. Milburn:
I beg to move amendment No. 9, in page 1, line 24, at end insert--
Mr. Deputy Speaker:
With this, it will be convenient to discuss amendment No. 10, in clause 4, page 3, line 15, at end insert--
Mr. Milburn:
The amendments return us, once again, to the principle of fairness which we have debated during much of this afternoon's proceedings and they cover issues that we discussed at length in Committee. They are of concern to a number of disability organisations, including RADAR--the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation. Their worry is straightforward.
The Bill would discriminate against direct payment recipients because it would give them different treatment from that accorded to the equivalent service user. The service user will continue to be provided with the service if there is a dispute with the local authority about the scale of the charges it seeks to make as a contribution towards that service. Indeed, service users will be able to appeal against the assessment made by the local authority on the basis of its reasonableness. Services will continue to be provided during the appeal because they are legally protected.
By contrast, deducting charges from direct payment recipients in advance, which is what the Bill allows, could jeopardise the provision of the services that they have bought. Under the amendments, any deduction or any
assessment of an individual's financial contribution against the level of a direct payment would take place only once the payment had been received; otherwise there is a risk that services could not be bought or that the direct payment recipient, unlike the service user, would have to foot the additional bill without any right of appeal.
The amendment addresses some inconsistencies in the Bill and is designed to establish a level playing field between direct service users and direct payment recipients. It is designed to uphold the dignity of disabled people by allowing them full control over their own financial affairs rather than giving power back to the local authority. We believe that it is consistent with the principles of the Bill and I hope that it gets a fair wind from the Minister.
Mr. Bowis:
I am grateful to the hon. Member for Darlington (Mr. Milburn) for the way in which he moved the amendment. It calls, first, for guidance on procedures for assessment and review of the financial contribution that the local authority expects people to make and, secondly, for direct payments to cover the full cost of the services to which they relate and for any contribution from recipients to be recovered later rather than deducted at source.
We have already discussed the discretion that local authorities have over the assessment of how much people should contribute to the cost of their non-residential care. I have explained why the Government do not wish to restrict that discretion and, more particularly, why it is not appropriate to use the Bill to lay down procedures for assessment.
If people feel that they are being expected to contribute too much to the overall cost of their care, the first step is for them to ask the authority to adjust the level of the direct payment, as provided for under Government amendment No. 16, which will insert a new subsection (2) in clause 1. If the local authority refuses to adjust the payment and the person remains dissatisfied, he or she will have access to the community care complaints procedure. If people do not think that they can manage at all, they may refuse to accept the direct payments, in which case they will receive services instead. If, on the other hand, the difference is small or they have already begun to receive direct payments before they realise that the amount is inadequate, they may decide to accept the direct payments while their complaint is being considered. The fact that they have not withdrawn their consent does not prevent them from using the complaints procedure or, ultimately, the ombudsman.
Those are adequate and appropriate review procedures. It would be cumbersome and bureaucratic to create an additional procedure in respect of financial contributions from people who receive direct payments only.
I now turn to the proposal that direct payments should cover the full cost of the services to which they relate, with any contribution from recipients being recovered later. That seems to me to be a much more bureaucratic system and more open to abuse than our proposal for making direct payments net of any contribution from the recipient.
1 '(4A) The Secretary of State shall issue guidance to local authorities to provide for procedures to be adopted for the assessment and review of any financial contribution which may be required from the person under subsection (2) above, and for the amount of any such contribution to be notified to the person after the direct payment has been made to him but before any such contributions are deducted.'.
'(2A) The Secretary of State shall issue guidance to local authorities to provide for procedures to be adopted for the assessment and review of any financial contribution which may be required from the person under subsection (2) above, and for the amount of any such contribution to be notified to the person after the direct payment has been made to him but before any such contributions are deducted.'.
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