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   Government defeated on home care plans
Government plans to provide free care at home to elderly and vulnerable people have suffered a series of defeats in the House of Lords. As the Personal Care at Home Bill underwent report stage, peers voted on four occasions to approve amendments that would have the effect of holding up the implementation of the scheme by at least six months. The plans would provide 400,000 vulnerable elderly people with free personal care in their homes, at an estimated annual cost of £670m, a third of which would be funded by councils. Gordon Brown announced the scheme at Labour's conference last autumn, during a consultation period on wider reforms to set up a National Care Service Cross-party talks on the reform of the social care system broke down early in February, amid Conservative accusations that Labour was planning a "£20,000 death tax", illustrated on posters with a tombstone bearing the words 'RIP Off'. During a debate in the Lords on Wednesday, Crossbench peer and president of the Local Government Association (LGA) Lord Best, spoke of the "anxieties" of councils across the country that are having to find annual costs of £250m during a time of economic turmoil. The House backed his amendment, which would postpone the start date of free home care from 1 October this year to 1 April 2011, by 208 votes to 127, a majority of 81. Peers also backed an amendment proposed by Lord Lipsey by 201 votes to 134, a majority of 67. Lord Lipsey said his proposal, which would require both Houses to vote on a piece of secondary legislation before the bill's proposals could come into force, was "a belt to go with Lord Best's braces". The Labour backbencher said that thorough scrutiny of the government's plans were needed. A third government defeat was suffered as peers voted by 171 to 120, majority 51, in favour of Lord Warner's amendment to delay the implementation of the bill's provisions until ministers had commissioned an independent review and laid the results before Parliament. The former health minister said: "I have to say that in wilfully pressing on, the government is choosing to ignore sound professional advice from those who have to administer the scheme." And an amendment by Lib Dem health spokeswoman Baroness Barker that would cause the powers in the bill to lapse after two years was also backed by a majority of 13. Junior health minister Baroness Thornton said: "We do not think it right to delay support to individuals because of local implementation issues. What we think is right is to tackle those issues." She said the government had listened to the concerns expressed and would allow councils to "phase in the implementation" of free personal care between October 2010 and March 2011. Care services minister Phil Hope called on the Conservative leader David Cameron to explain his parties' opposition to the legislation that had passed through the Commons unopposed. He said: "David Cameron must urgently explain why his peers have just overturned a bill that went unopposed by the Tory party in the Commons." It has been reported that some peers suspect ministers have always been resigned to defeat and are planning to use care at home at the election by accusing both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats of blocking help for the elderly. Source: epolitix.com Copyright Dod's Parliamentary Communications Ltd
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