Ms Clare Duffy:

I agree completely with the Deputy about the need to reset the social welfare system. After Covid the term "the great reset" has been used to refer to rethinking everything and I think we need a great reset for the carer's allowance scheme. It is 33 years old. It was established in 1990 for people caring for a relevant pensioner living in the same house. It was not designed for parents caring for children and adults with autism for 20, 30, 40 or more years. It is time to completely reset the scheme. As Ms Cox said, we are looking for fundamental reforms, to move towards the participation income and, in the meantime, to increase the income disregards generously. The carer's allowance income disregard increased by 250% between 2000 and 2008. We all know what happened in 2008. The disregards did not increase after that. They increased for the first time in 14 years in 2020, by 14%. Now in 15 years, the disregards have increased once by 14%, but in eight years between 2000 and 2008 they increased by 250%. We need to think differently.

The Deputy's question around services is difficult. Those co-occuring or overlapping conditions or diagnoses have been a massive problem for families: "Look, your child has autism but they also have a mental health difficulty; therefore, you're not going here." There is a tug-of-war between disability services and mental health services. Who falls in between the stools?