Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, I speak to Amendment 51, which is in my name. I concur with my noble friend Lady Tyler: this £300 million announcement has changed the situation that we were facing previously, and I congratulate the Minister for his part in bringing that about. I shall restrict my remarks to a couple of technical points about the £300 million regarding how it will be implemented, the timescale, and whether it will be available to benefit claimants under the existing system or whether it will not be available until universal credit is rolled out. That is important to clarify. Existing claimants who are working fewer than 16 hours would like to know how quickly they will be able to get their hands on that money. I have a question relating to the £20 billion implementation fund, which I have never really understood. I understand that the £300 million has been taken from that, which is fine as far as it goes. Is there a breakdown of the implementation fund? I know that as regards DEL and AME there is some quite nifty footwork concerning spending to save, which I support. However, it would be helpful if the Minister could say something about the implementation fund. For example, if we were taking this £300 million—which is a significant sum of money—from, say, agile computing in Warrington, then I would be less happy about that. The Minister gets the point, I think. It may be that this is a moveable feast but, if he could say anything about the implementation fund and where the £300 million has come from, that would be icing on the cake. This is good news, which I welcome. We can now proceed with more confidence in the area of childcare. I look forward to the Minister’s reply.