Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) steps he (i) is taking and (ii) plans to take and (b) financial support he (i) is providing and (ii) plans to provide to unpaid carers caring for relatives who are (A) vulnerable, (B) older, (C) disabled and (D) living with a mental or physical illness during (1) the November 2020 and (2) future covid-19 lockdowns.

During the pandemic the Government’s focus has been on supporting unpaid carers to continue to care. We have:

- produced guidance specifically for carers and young carers,

- provided funding to Carers UK’s support phoneline;

- produced a leaflet to help carers self-identify when someone is discharged from hospital;

- ensured carers can continue to provide essential care and are exempt from rules preventing mixing with other households where they are providing care; worked with NHS England and NHS Improvement on guidance and a letter (template) enabling unpaid carers to identify themselves and their needs, so these can be more easily met;

- introduced two important temporary measures to help unpaid carers financially to be able to continue to claim Carer’s Allowance if they have a temporary break in caring, because they or the person they care for gets COVID-19 or if either have to isolate because of it;

- and made clear that providing ‘emotional support’ rather than just more traditional forms of care to a person in need of care and support also counts towards the Carer’s Allowance threshold of 35 hours of care a week.

We have also continued to iterate the regulations on lockdown to ensure that the care and support needs of people and their carers can be met. The regulations for the lockdown that commenced on 5 November allow for someone to come into the home of the person who needs care to provide that care for the purpose of giving the main carer respite. The person receiving care can also go to someone else’s home to receive respite care. These legislative provisions will enable some carers to arrange and access respite and support during this period.