My hon. Friend makes an important point. I would say that the challenge is as follows. Other schemes are in place to help families on low incomes to deal with some of the issues around childbirth. I have talked about the vouchers that are available to help with nutrition and we have the Sure Start maternity grant, too, which is designed to help low to middle-income working families and out-of-work families to cover the one-off costs associated with having a new baby. There are measures out there, but, yes, they are restricted. The Sure Start maternity grant will apply to the first child—it is a grant of up to £500—but, of course, the problem is that the previous Government left us with a huge debt that we need to tackle and to pay back. If we put off these decisions, as the hon. Friends of the hon. Member for Leicester West (Liz Kendall) would want us to, it would be the poor who would pay the most. It would be those children who would be saddled with the debt that the previous Government left hanging around their necks.
Savings Accounts and Health in Pregnancy Grant Bill
Proceeding contribution from
Mark Hoban
(Conservative)
in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 26 October 2010.
It occurred during Debate on bills on Savings Accounts and Health in Pregnancy Grant Bill.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
517 c209 
Session
2010-12
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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2023-12-15 13:33:18 +0000
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