Welfare Reform Bill

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, for this amendment, which has given us a good start in these Committee proceedings to have a general and, in some respects, a detailed discussion also around some key provisions in the Bill. The amendment seeks to exclude single parents who have children under school age—although that is not defined, I presume it is meant to apply to children from the age of five—from any of the measures proposed in this Bill. However, I think that the noble Lord himself acknowledged that the amendment does not particularly do that because it refers to Part 1 as a whole. Part 1 includes things like payments on account, social loan provisions and issues around DLA, which I do not think was his intention. We presume that his intention was to focus on the progression-to-work pathfinders dealt with in Clause 2, but he referred to Clause 1 also. I think, and on hearing other noble Lords who have participated, that there is some confusion in this matter.