The Equality Bill: breaking it down

I’ve been told that the best blogs are ‘fey’ which I responded to with a blank look. I believe it means whimsical. Anyway, I fear that this entry will not be fey but rather legalistic as this week has seen me looking at the finer details of the Equality Bill.

The Bill includes a set of ‘protected characteristics’ on whose basis people should not be discriminated against in terms of employment and provision of goods/services. The protected characteristics are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. Carers UK have been arguing for ‘caring’ to be such a characteristic, but unfortunately with no luck so far.

However, carers will be afforded protection through their “association to disability” and also to somebody who is elderly. For the purposes of the Equality Bill:

A person has a disability if:
(a) they have a physical or mental impairment, and
(b) the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

This means people who care for somebody who is elderly, physically disabled, has learning disabilities or mental ill health will be protected. However, carers of people who abuse non-prescribed substances will not be protected as such people will not be considered disabled.

In previous community care legislation, people addicted to drugs or alcohol could be considered to be disabled thus affording their carers certain rights. However, the Equality Bill is going to be based on the Disability Discrimination Act definition of disability and there are 180,000 carers of people abusing substances. Some of these substance abusers may also have mental or physical disabilities which would allow them to be defined as disabled though.

But let’s try to finish on a bright note, and it’s actually the Government that provides it in the Equality Bill. Solicitor General, Vera Baird MP, announced that although the Bill generally only applies to those aged 18+, a special clause announced by the Government this week will enable young carers to be given the same protection through association to disability as adult carers.

This Bill won’t change every carer’s life, but it will make a real difference to the lives of many. The very idea of the Bill and the example of the special clause inserted, unprompted, does show that the Government can be genuine in its attempts to help. Neither the Bill nor the Government are perfect, but I guess none of us are.

Take Care
Gordon