Welfare Reform Bill

I second the view of the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell. Of course I agree that access to peer support and advice on managing direct payments plays a vital role in making a success of individual budgets. How could I not? How, indeed, could the Minister not? The question that he must answer is what other options are available for people to exercise greater control. That is the only way that he can defend what I suspect will be the Government’s position. Having ready access to information, or contact with groups who know how the system works would, it goes without saying, be useful for boosting confidence among potential users to take up direct budgets. People who have never been offered any level of control before may be anxious about what a direct payment may involve—quite understandably, given that many of them are not in the best of health. In passing, I remember shocking many noble Lords many years ago—before most noble Lords in this Room were in the House—by making a remark along the lines of, "Of course, you have to be fit to be successfully disabled". That described what I thought, but did not quite come out as it was intended.