Welfare Reform Bill

I support everything that has just been said. Speaking from my own experience, a number of years ago I was a carer for my husband in the last three years of his life. At that time I approached our local authority for assistance and somebody duly came to see me. After looking at everything, she said, "Well, I know that we’re supposed to give you some assistance, but it is within available resources, you know. The resources in this area are really rather limited. Lady Turner, we would be grateful if you could do everything you can for yourself". So I made some inquiries with neighbours and so on, and eventually found a nice woman in the next road who was willing to come in and help me. I paid her, of course, quite separately. As far as the local authority was concerned, however, it was all about "within available resources", and resources were very limited, so, "please do the best you can for yourself". I hope that there will be an attempt under the Bill to ensure that local authorities have the available resources; otherwise a lot of this will not come off at all.