Child Poverty Bill

My Lords, the evening is young and I will move this amendment briefly. The Minister has explained again and again in the course of this Committee that the Government think it is not a good idea to include in the Bill anything that they can avoid including which is not about household income. They would really like—and it is perfectly possible—the Bill to be simply about household income and the amounts of it that are to be guaranteed under the agreement. That being the case, the argument for not putting ““household income”” in the title of Bill is weak. The argument for using the title ““child poverty”” has become stronger as the noble Lord and his colleagues have decided to accept one or two amendments relating to what one might call non-income-focused aspects of child poverty. The balance of the Bill is still about household income rather than child poverty. I have said this before so I will not go into detail, but I think your Lordships would all agree that household income is very different from what filters down to the child. First, the quantum of the income depends on decisions made by the parents. Secondly, the amount that filters down to the child is also the decision of the parents. There are various other policy decisions that the parents can make, including the decision to take a large quantity of alcohol or drugs which can seriously affect the poverty and economic disadvantage of the child. Therefore, the words ““household income”” should be substituted for ““child poverty”” in the title of the Bill but, guessing that the noble Lord will not accept that, I have suggested that they should be additional to it. I beg to move.