Social Security

The hon. Gentleman makes an extremely good point. If, as a result of the Government’s policy, the means of access to benefits and pensions—local post offices in rural areas or deprived urban areas—is removed, the uprating should include an amount that makes it possible for people to gain access to those benefits and pensions. Otherwise, while there may be a superficial uprating, increased costs will mean an overall downrating for those people. I hope that the Minister will address that issue, and particularly the question of when people living in such areas might lose the ability to access benefits in the manner of their choosing. I hope that the Government will provide time in the near future for a full debate on this issue, because Ministers have so far been unable to address it on the Floor of the House. I come to the future of disability benefits, with which the orders before us also deal. We Liberal Democrats will make a formal submission on this subject in response to the Government’s Green Paper on welfare reform, but there are a few points that are worth making in the context of today’s debate. Although we endorse, for example, the various forms of support being offered to people on incapacity benefit to get them back into work and, therefore, off the benefit currently provided in the pathways to work pilot areas, if such support is to be extended throughout the country to all people in receipt of incapacity benefit it needs to be properly funded. The Government estimate that the pathways to work project costs some £400 per claimant. Based on the latest annual figures for people commencing incapacity benefit claims, it would take some £220 million a year to fund a national roll-out at the same level. Yet the Government are offering only £360 million over two years. If the resources are spread too thinly, we will not see results and we will let down all those claimants who want to find work. That is especially true at a time of rising unemployment. Conditionality of benefits has been a major feature of the debate on the future of benefits such as jobseeker’s allowance and incapacity benefit. That debate continues.