Less than twenty four hours after the Government's partial about face on its plan to cut 30,000 families' Carer Allowance payments, the new plan is unravelling. Mrs Vanstone today conceded there were strings attached to the six conditions added to the recognised disabilities list yesterday. Yesterday Mrs Vanstone promised families of children with the six disabilities they would automatically qualify for Carer Allowance until their children turn sixteen. But today she was forced to admit that the guarantee is only good for two years, when their place on the list will be reviewed. It also emerged today that yesterday's announcement by Mrs Vanstone breaks a promise made by the Prime Minister to Alan Jones by phone and reported in a 2GB Editorial on Friday. Jones told 2GB listeners: "Now he [the Prime Minister] assures me that the carer's allowance will not be withdrawn from people because of the review - equally, we have to address those people for whom the allowance has already been removed or reduced, and I raised that point with him." (8 August 2003) Yesterday's announcement breaks that undertaking. The only families who will now have the allowance re-instated will be those who have children with the disabilities listed yesterday. Thousands of families whose children have disabilities such as cerebral palsy, chronic severe asthma, Asperger's syndrome, diabetes and ADD and who have lost their payments will not have them restored. And as the cost cutting review continues thousands more will lose their allowance if they don't meet the Government's tighter eligibility requirements. Minister Vanstone must come clean. Just how many of the 70,000 families under review have been given a reprieve under the announcement yesterday and how many are still expected to lose their allowance? The Minister has access to these figures - she must release them. Source www.alp.org.au/media/ - Geoff Walsh, 19 National Circuit, Barton ACT 2600. ###