Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Morris of Manchester for his contribution not only to this debate in 1969 but to the debate on the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act, to which he referred. He was much too modest to repeat his profound contribution to that debate. Movingly, he said, "““if years cannot be added to the lives of the chronically sick, at least life can be added to their years””.—[Official Report, Commons, 5/12/69; col. 1863.]" I quote my noble friend because it is sometimes said that the values of a society can be judged by the standard of its welfare system. While there are limits to that statement, it is true that the welfare systemcan define a society. Welfare defines our common humanity. It defines our collective compassion and our sense of social justice, and, for some of us, it defines our moral compass. How we treat our retired citizens, our pensioners, our children and those with disabilities can say much about what kind of society we are. To date, the Government’s strategy has been one of empowerment, directed, rightly, at getting people from welfare to work. This must be welcomed. Yet, only half of Britain’s disabled people of working age are employed. Those who have been on incapacity benefit for more than two years are more likely to die or retire than ever to get back into work. So we certainly need reform of the system. Sadly, the history of previous reforms has been underpinned by a culture of sanction and even fear. But let us be very clear: no one will argue against reform of the incapacity benefit regime. No one will argue against the crackdown on benefit fraud. The better co-ordination of the housing benefit regime is just one of many worthy objectives that the Bill seeks to address. However, it is essential that the Bill sets the right tone of incentive and support. The measures in the Bill must therefore tackle employers’ prejudice against those with disability; it must enable and empower those who can work to do just that; it must ensure that those who are deemed unfit to work receive the support and decent benefits that they deserve; and it must crack down on fraud in the benefits system. However, for these reforms to be successful, it is vital that the many fault lines caused by the complexity of the benefits system are addressed. We all recognise the scale of the task which faces the Department for Work and Pensions. It pays out more than £100 billion in benefits every year. It processes more than 60 million cheques per month. It handles more than 200,000 appeals per year against benefit decisions. Thirty million people in the United Kingdom receive income from at least one pension or benefit department. That is a huge task. It is therefore self-evident that it is not possible to satisfy every claim from every individual, but do we really need the multiplicity of benefits that is highlighted in the report on complexity of benefits by the National Audit Office in November 2005? I am confident that this Bill will add to the complexity. Sadly, due to the complexity of the system, the people who need the benefits most understand it least. When staff at the sharp end of the system have to ring up the citizens advice bureau or the Family Welfare Association for advice on and interpretation of the regulations, we are all in trouble. Delivery is a crucial part of the benefits system. Yet the 2005-06 Social Security Advisory Committee’s report drew attention to the difficulties that many claimants will face following the termination of the Post Office card account system in 2010. In addition, the current round of Post Office closures will cause real hardship to claimants, particularly senior citizens who are not mobile and those who live in rural areas. Finally, on the culture of the Bill, it is short on principles on the face of it—there are just three or four key ones—and limited in details. It is essentially an enabling Bill in many instances, as the Explanatory Notes say. The key objectives will in reality be delivered by a framework of rules and secondary regulations. I have no doubt that this House will pay as much attention to the secondary regulations as to the Bill, because reform of the benefits system is a matter of fundamental importance, requiring rigorous legislative scrutiny for the details and primary provision. In conclusion, the Bill should be about welfare, not work fear.