Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, I, too, took part in the debate last week and I will not repeat everything that I said then, particularly about some of the implications for women. My noble friend Baroness Hollis has spoken so eloquently today that I do not need to repeat it. I was particularly struck in the debate last week by the contribution by the noble Baroness, Lady Browning, who talked about people on the autistic spectrum. She spoke very movingly and quoted from a letter that someone had sent to her about what it means for someone on the autistic spectrum who is told they will have to share with people they do not know. What is it going to be like for that person and for the other people in the accommodation? How tolerant will they be of what will be perceived as rather odd and difficult behaviour? I remember my flat-sharing days, and it would have been a nightmare to share a flat with a stranger who was difficult. The noble Baroness made the point that this is not simply about the amount of discretionary housing payment, although I will say a little about that in a moment. In the letter that she quoted from, the mother of a 32 year-old man on the autistic spectrum in this situation describes the anxiety of not knowing whether he will get help through the discretionary housing payment. This is a question simply about the amount; because it is discretionary there is no right to the payment, and someone on the autistic spectrum needs certainty. They are incredibly anxious as to what is going to happen. The Minister did not really address this in his response last week. I was also frankly quite shocked by the harshness of his response on the question of non-resident parents. Perhaps I can read back to the Minister what he said. He said: "““Parents living in hostels or other non-mainstream accommodation will, I am sure, be striving to maintain quality relationships with their children””." Of course they will. He continued: "““Ultimately, it is for individual maintenance and custody arrangements to reflect living arrangements, and it is not appropriate for the state to fund two homes for a child””." He also said: "““But living in shared accommodation should not preclude both parents from playing a full part in a child's life””.—[Official Report, 12/10/11; col. GC466.]" We should think of the reality of this and what it must be like if you are living with strangers. Shared parenting is often very fraught anyway; the Government want to encourage shared parenting, but surely this discourages it. I was very disappointed with that response last week. I come back to the point made by my noble friend—or rather the noble Lord, Lord Kirkwood; I think of him as a noble friend sometimes—about the amount. This will probably be a running gag of this Committee. Discretionary payments have become the loaves and fishes of the housing benefit world, and even our Lord would have had limits on how far he could stretch those loaves and fishes.