Alison Bennett's Monday Mail: Pulling out the rug

Pulling out the rug

Last Sunday and into Monday the news was dominated by the government’s white paper setting out its immigration plans. In a wide ranging set of proposals, my particular area of concern is that no new visas will be issued for overseas care workers from this year. In Parliament I challenged Home Secretary Yvette Cooper as to whether an ‘impact assessment’ of this change has been carried out. She avoided answering the question.

As I said at the Homecare Association conference on Wednesday, this is like pulling the rug out from under the feet of the social care sector. For a nuanced summary of the choices facing the government on adult social care, I would recommend this very balanced article by the Institute for Government.

The Liberal Democrats’ want to see more British people attracted to work in social care. One way to do this is to pay a higher minimum wage for people who work in social care which Lib Dem Leader  Ed Davey put to the Prime Minister in PMQs on Wednesday. 

No amount of technological innovation will ever replace someone helping you eat your dinner, take your medication, or squeeze your hand when you are lonely. It’s high time that we recognised and valued social care.

Exposing the Carer’s Allowance Scandal

Whilst last week’s announcements were about people who are paid to work in social care, a word for the millions of unpaid carers - people who care for their loved ones. 

This week I caught this short edition of Private Eye’s podcast looking at investigative journalism by The Guardian’s Patrick Butler and Josh Halliday. They have exposed how carers were taken to court due to overpayments by the Department of Work and Pensions of the Carer’s Allowance. The Lib Dems are campaigning for a debt amnesty to right this injustice.

If you are an unpaid carer, please make sure that you are getting the support you need.

Ed Davey - Why I care

Looking to the week ahead, Why I Care by Ed Davey is going to be published and is available for pre-order now. It’s received positive reviews, including this four star rating from The Telegraph  

Burgess Hill Means Business EXPO

Thursday was a Mid Sussex day with meetings in Haywards Heath, and a morning at the Burgess Hill Means Business EXPO at The King’s Church. As you can see from the photographs, there were lots of different businesses and not for profit organisations represented. It was buzzing with a really positive atmosphere. 

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill update

On Friday I was in Parliament for the first day of debate on the Report Stage of this Bill. An update on what was debated and how I voted is available here.

Getting in touch

My parliamentary email address is: alison.bennett.mp@parliament.uk. If you need my help, please get in touch.

Best wishes,

Alison

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