Welfare Reform Bill

There certainly are problems. The Government have made much of marginal deduction rates and the impact on work incentives, but it turns out from the small print of the Bill that the changes will increase the marginal deduction rates of many more people than will have them decreased. Again, the Secretary of State's own think-tank has pointed out the problem with the high taper rate that the Government have chosen. My hon. Friends the Members for Makerfield (Yvonne Fovargue) and for Stretford and Urmston (Kate Green) pointed out that in the tax credits system, benefit in respect of children can be paid to their mother. Sometimes, if all the money went to the father, the children would never see it. The Bill completely ignores that issue. A lot has been said about disability living allowance, and my right hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough (Mr Blunkett) spelled out powerfully the dangers of what is being done. It is being scrapped and replaced with the personal independence payment—whatever that might eventually turn out to be. A lot of disabled people are frightened, and the Bill to abolish DLA was published before the consultation even finished. We should reform DLA not abolish it, and it is wrong for the Bill to proceed in that way. As I said earlier, the Bill presents us with one good idea—the universal credit—and two very big problems. The first is all the things that the Bill does not tell us—the large gaps of great significance that have been left in it—and the second is all the things that it does tell us. It needs radical improvement before it reaches the statute book, so I commend the amendment to the House.