Social Security

I am grateful for that intervention and I agree that that should be a priority. The DWP has a number of issues that it needs to sort out, many of which are high priorities: the Child Support Agency is one, as is the Post Office card account. None the less, the issue that the hon. Gentleman highlights should be given much greater attention. I come to housing benefit and the existing incentives to work. Chapter 6 of the welfare reform Green Paper is entitled, ““A radical new approach to Housing Benefits””. There must have been a mistake in the copy that I received, because all that it had was a not very radical chapter on how the not particularly radical local housing allowance might be rolled out nationally. Perhaps the explanation for that is simply the gap between rhetoric and reality to which we have become all too accustomed from this Government over the years. The uprating before us today once again fails to uprate earnings disregards for housing benefit and council tax benefit. In 1988, £5 of a single person’s earned income was disregarded. Today, the figure is still £5, but it is a devalued £5.