Welfare Reform Bill

The Minister may be amused to know that almost exactly 50 years ago I started to work for what was known as the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance. In those days, we had designed benefits. Everything was two pounds and 10 shillings a week. We only had five benefits and we did not deal with unemployment benefit. The progress that has been made since then is admirable, but we need to take care with how we deal with the people for whom we are trying to find employment. Every individual is different and they all have different needs. I am thinking of people who may not be very well but who want to work just the same. I am thinking of people who do not have the language but want to work just the same. We need staff who are trained to be able to cope with those sorts of things. The difficulty again arises with how we can split those staff, because different people live in different areas. We return to the cost benefit of this and I am concerned that it has not been thought through completely.