Child Poverty Bill

I thank the noble Baroness for that. I am not quite sure I understand the distinction. For all groups, that argument basically works: if you have no money, you are incentivised to go into the labour market. That might be true—it is a question of degree and where you draw the line. We spent a lot time discussing that. The issue that I am most concerned about in this area involves young people who are least supported, and particularly young girls. We go straight back to the maternal nutrition argument and the argument that the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, and the noble Lord, Lord Rea, made earlier that nutrition at the point of conception and even pre-conception matters so much for the development of the child. If we get a badly imbalanced benefits system, which is what the Rowntree Foundation is telling us we have now got, we are building problems in that area for the future. I cannot accept the Minister’s assurance that the protection for this is in Clause 15. That talks about the impact on the economy as a whole, not on any poor groups within it. I do not think we have a defence for this. If we do not have a defence here we will not have a defence and the likelihood is that the trend we are already seeing, which is to get a more and more unbalanced benefits system, is likely to be locked in. With that warning, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 16 withdrawn.