Welfare Reform Bill

I will not give way. I want to move on to the lack of an appeals process. I regret the loss of the extremely useful digest published by the social fund commissioner which gave an overview of appeals and reviews. That was an invaluable tool for advisers. It assisted them to help their clients to obtain their rights consistently. Such consistency is extremely important. Without a universal scheme, it will be lost, so vulnerable claimants will be left with a patchy and inconsistent service. People might have a right of appeal or independent review but, depending on local authorities' policies, one side of the street could well get a cash grant while the other side would be given advice about which charity to approach. In the context of homelessness, I have seen that one local authority's interpretation of ““advice and assistance”” can be very different from that of the local authority that gives people a list of private landlords.