Welfare Reform Bill

We had a substantial discussion about the possibility of the removal of eligibility for income support at our last meeting. Several of us made it very clear that we had received letters from women—mostly carers—who were concerned lest their income support be removed and not replaced by anything else. We had some assurances from the Minister, who made it quite clear that he understood these worries. Indeed, he committed that there would no removal of eligibility except after an affirmative resolution. We are very grateful for that. On the other hand, there are a lot of very concerned people out there. A lot of people are worried that they may lose their entitlement to income support, and income support is all that they have to exist on, particularly if they are carers. In particular, I brought to the Committee’s notice a letter that I had received from a woman who was the carer for a disabled child. Quite clearly she was concerned that she would have her income support removed and not replaced by anything else unless she committed herself to waged work or work-related activity. It therefore seemed worth pursuing this amendment, the text of which was suggested by the TUC. As I said last time, the TUC is also very concerned about this because the clause gives the impression that there would be a substantial investigation by people concerned with social security, hence the requirement in the amendment that it be removed only following examination of the proposal to do so by the Social Security Advisory Committee. That would give further assurances to the people who have written to me, and to others who are so concerned that the income support that they have relied on may disappear without anything taking its place unless they commit themselves to work-related activity or some sort of waged employment. For those reasons, I think it is worth pursuing. I beg to move.