My Lords, I return once again to the treatment, during life and at death, of elderly siblings or close family members who have lived together for years but whose position vis-à-vis each other and the state is fragile. Noble Lords may recall that I addressed this issue twice during the passage of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act and that I have spoken about it on several occasions in debates. You wait for years for the right Bill to turn up and then two come along together.
In 2004, the House agreed to an amendment that would have extended civil partnerships to family members in view of the financial disadvantage they suffer under inheritance tax, but not only inheritance tax. Civil partnership structures may have been overkill, yet the Government acknowledged the importance of the issue even though the amendment was overturned in the other place. Still nothing has been done. I have tried to persuade the House more than once to take heed of the unfair way in which carers and siblings are treated in our law—indeed, they perceive themselves as being treated unfairly—compared with those in a sexual relationship.
In the course of the Civil Partnership Bill 2004, some Members of this House said that it was not the Bill through which to right an injustice. During the passage of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill the same argument was made. However, where there is a wrong we should hasten to take the opportunity to remedy it without resorting to technical or process arguments.
The unfairness has increased. Every adult in this country can now marry or enter a civil partnership, for whatever reason, with concomitant legal advantages. Only family members cannot benefit. Today I received a letter from two such people. They live together in their family home—one is divorced, the other never married—and when the surviving parent died six years ago they paid a great deal of inheritance tax. They feel that the current law treats them unfairly and fear that the son, who will inherit from both of them, will again have to pay a vast amount of tax. They say there is nothing they can do about this. Cohabiting couples can choose to marry and thus benefit; and same-sex couples can marry or enter a civil partnership. However, because they are blood relations there is nothing that they can do.
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The case which started me on this particular campaign is well known: it is that of Misses Joyce and Sybil Burden, sisters, who are now over 90 and, as far
as I know, still alive. They have lived together for about 85 years. They cared for their parents and two aunts to the end and did not allow them to go into a home. In 2008, the inheritance tax on the death of the first sister—not that she has died—was estimated at £120,000. It may now be more if the value of their house has risen.
The European Court of Human Rights held that there was discriminatory treatment of the sisters but that the UK had a wide margin of appreciation afforded to it and could treat benefits differently, according to status, in pursuit of the aim of promoting stable relationships by providing the survivor with, inter alia, financial security on the death of a spouse or partner. The Government want to bolster stable relationships. Those relationships should not have to be heterosexual or involve sex or procreation. If they are stable, loving and committed they deserve recognition, a theme that has run through the debate on this Bill.
Any two family members or carers who stay together for decades as an act of self-determination and personal development are a recognisable and welcome unit. Treating them with respect and giving them some of the benefits that married people enjoy might save the state costs that might otherwise be involved in taking care of them and giving them benefits because when one of them dies the other may have to pay so much inheritance tax that they sell the home and have to go into state care.
Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights forbids discrimination in rights that are granted on the grounds, inter alia, of birth or other status. My amendment calls for no more than a review of the situation of family members, not only in relation to tax but to occupation rights, parental rights, pensions, medical issues and all the relevant rights and obligations that other people who are in a recognised relationship have.
The people I am talking about do not have the choice or the freedom to enter into a formal relationship. Their contracts may not be recognised by the courts. The sisters who have written to me say that they have tried every way to avoid the burden of inheritance tax that is likely to fall on them with devastating consequences. Inheritance tax is a small matter in the global view of things. It is paid by fewer than 3% of the population and, on the figures I saw most recently, raises less than £3 billion per annum for the Government.
If a review recommended help for family members, it would be cost free in relation to inheritance tax because I am only suggesting a deferral of that tax until the death of the survivor. My amendment proposes a review of the legal support that ought to be available to the thousands—very often women—who have lived together in a household for many years and to carers who are family members. Where a younger one has cared for an older one but is overlooked in the will of the older one, despite years of selfless sacrifice, the younger carer may find herself homeless and penniless. I grew up next door to such a situation where an unmarried daughter—in those days referred to as an old maid—spent decades looking after her parents and when they died her widowed sister moved in with her, again for a long period. I am sure we all know
such situations where people deserve thanks, recognition and support and not to have a sword hanging over their heads for fear of having to sell up and move when they are very old.
This Bill presents the opportunity to recognise and assist the army of carers and siblings who have done their duty to their families, and did not shift the burden onto the state or the taxpayer. My amendment is crafted to encompass only the position of that category of people who cannot marry or enter into a civil partnership which would give them those advantages—namely, people within the prohibited degrees: grandparents, parents, children, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces. We all know just such situations, where care and codependency have grown up over the years, and I hope that the Government will look at that situation. I beg to move.