Work and Families (Increase of the Maximum Amount) Order 2009

We believe that we have a good case for increasing the limit to help employees made redundant, particularly during the current recession. It is absolutely right for the Government to take action to prevent the collapse of the banks and to support business through the recession. It is right for us to help ordinary people as well as those people in difficult times. We have carefully considered the impact on employers, and the estimate is that the £30 increase would cost them an additional £51 million to £77 million per year. We accept that those are substantial additional costs, but stand by our view that we have struck the balance about right. There were calls to increase by an even larger amount, but we believe that we have got the balance right. We feel that we have had an excellent record over the past decade and that we now stand in the middle ground between those calling for no increase at all and those calling for a very substantial increase. We do not believe that the £30 increase is too onerous a burden for business. It is right to point out that businesses are vulnerable in what is a difficult economic climate. However, we weighed up the small increase against the needs of employees, who have shown loyalty to a company and deserve to have that loyalty recognised. We believe that the order strikes the right balance for both employer and employee. It is unfortunate that the noble Lord, Lord De Mauley, used the derogatory phrase paymasters, as we are acting in the interests of fairness, not meeting any vested interests. We have also ensured that we are doing our best to help businesses in a number of different ways, whether it is the £270 million of guaranteed loans that have been offered to 2,855 businesses under the enterprise guarantee scheme, or the 135,000 businesses that we have helped to retain more than £2.4 billion of working capital by deferring tax payments. We have done our best to stimulate the automotive sector via the vehicle scrappage scheme, which has resulted in 50,000 orders since going live on 18 May. I think that I have covered all the comments made. I welcome the comments made by the noble Lord, Lord Razzall, which are absolutely germane to the current situation. Motion agreed.