Continuing Care Report

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Health – in the House of Commons at 11:30 am on 22 February 2005.

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Photo of Stephen Ladyman Stephen Ladyman Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Health 11:30, 22 February 2005

Let me deal with that last point first. Since 2001, we have allowed all local authorities to defer payments, so property needs to be sold only after people's death. That is available in every part of this country. It is a policy that means that people do not have to sell their homes, and it would be swept away by the policies of both the Conservative party and the Liberal Democrats if they were implemented. The simple fact is that we have a serious and complex problem to clean up. We had to go from 96 sets of eligibility criteria to 28 sets, and we had to ensure that people could understand them. All the cases in which people requested their review by the March deadline have now been completed. Other cases are coming in continuously, and we are paying compensation on the basis that, where the national health service received unjust enrichment, we are paying the money back to people. We are paying £180 million to clean up a mess left by the hon. Gentleman's Government.