Personal Care at Home Bill

My Lords, I support the amendment moved by the noble Baroness, Lady Masham. I emphasise the point borne out by her moving quotation—the fact is that most people living at home get very small amounts of care of, typically, six hours a week, typically confined to week days. The Government may say that that will all change but they have spent all the money on making the care free, so they are not going to have any left over to provide much more care. In those circumstances, unless the Government’s costings are hugely increased so that far more care is made available at home, as well as it being free—that would explode the Government’s costings—the reality is that for many people staying on at home is not a bearable option. I shall refer to that later in the debate. It is therefore all the more essential that something is done to prevent the bias in the Bill—it can be put no less highly than that—against people who need a lot of care, will not get it at home and who, if they go into residential care, will unfairly have to pay for it whereas people who receive it at home will not.