Welfare Reform Bill

To clarify, it is one year. Perhaps I should have said, ““any softening at the end of that one year into a second year””. I think that that was the point the noble Lord was making; I apologise to him. We have no additional plans for the return to work credit. Qualitative evaluation of RTWC pathways pilot areas found that people who expected the return to work credit to expire in the next few weeks were all thinking ahead to how they could manage the drop in income. Some had already taken steps to work longer hours; and some people had purposely not used the payment to help everyday budgeting, choosing to save it or to clear debts, and were not anticipating financial problems. Concern about the impending loss of RTWC was linked with believing themselves ineligible for working tax credit and with perceiving few alternative opportunities for enhancing income. People at least four months from the date of expiry said that they did not want to work longer hours. They thought that they could manage the loss of return to work credit by budgeting more carefully or perhaps investigate the possibility of receiving working tax credit. The evaluation showed that people can live and operate within the change and understand its parameters. I hope that that has dealt fully with the noble Lord’s points. I stress again that we are continuing to look at more flexible ways of helping people take up opportunities and increase options without fear of their benefits being removed straight away. That work continues.