The Government may have made it clear it does not support the introduction of a single, tax-exempt care voucher for employees who care for elderly and disabled people as well as those with childcare responsibilities, but advocates of a single care voucher still think, despite this, it is only a matter of time before it comes into effect.
Speaking at a debate in Westminster Hall in February on the best ways to support carers and employers, Jonathan Shaw, minister for the disabled at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), said: "We do not want to pilot (generic) care vouchers because we do not think it is the best use of resources. They would be very poorly targeted and regressive."
Also speaking at the debate, Terry Rooney, Labour MP for Bradford North and chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, suggested there was a "strange contradiction between the Government's attitude towards care vouchers for adults who need care and care vouchers for children". Currently tax advantages are available for workplace provision of childcare but not for the care of disabled or elderly adults.
Shaw argued that a single voucher would be too costly to set up for the results it would yield. "A move towards vouchers, given the time and cost implications and the apparatus that would need to be put in place, would not produce a situation more desirable than that resulting from the reforms to the benefits system we want.
"The comparison with childcare vouchers is imperfect," he added, "because children are rarely financially independent with an income source, whereas generally adults needing care have some financial resources at their disposal, as well as state-provided care or benefits. The circumstances are different."
Shaw's response comes despite recommendations in August 2008 from the Work and Pensions Select Committee that the Government should make a full, cost/benefit analysis of tax and National Insurance (NI) exemptions for employees who care for disabled people - similar to tax-exempt childcare vouchers. It also advised the DWP to pilot the scheme with its own staff. So far, the Government has failed to implement either of these recommendations.
A spokeswoman from the Department of Health told HR magazine: "The Government does not believe a care voucher scheme with tax and NI exemption would provide the most appropriate, cost-effective and fairest solution to the issues raised by the committee. Tax breaks exclude non-taxpayers and offer greater savings for higher paid people who are generally in a better position to provide additional care. As a result, tax breaks would not target those in greatest need of financial support. The Government's social care policy for adults has been to focus on those with the highest needs and lowest means."
But supporters of the campaign for a single care voucher believe this Government is taking too short-term a view of the care situation. Stephen Burke, (pictured above) chief executive of Counsel & Care, a charity campaigning for better care for older people, explains: "It is not a question of 'if' there will be a single care voucher, but 'when'. In the long term, a future Government will move towards a single care voucher. There is an increasing number of carers of older people, whom employers need to support in the same way they support parents and this has to be recognised."
In December, HR magazine reported that shadow minister for families Maria Miller had acknowledged the "very clear argument" for the need to support employees with caring responsibilities but such proposals would have to be carefully costed.
Nigel Waterson, shadow minister for work and pensions, expressed his support for a single care voucher at February's debate. He said: "Comments have been made about care vouchers. Responsible employers, such as John Lewis, see that as the way forward.
"When carers are in flexible, carer-friendly work, a Conservative Government will help them to stay in work by ensuring the swift roll-out of individual budgets and direct payments. That will mean that instead of being fitted into a one-size-fits-all benefits system, carers will get the help that they need and want," he added.
