Welfare Reform Bill

That is exactly the structure we need, but how does one find a way? It may be an escrow account in which that payment is protected. That is what we are going to develop. I will resist the siren sound of the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie. I have made a very firm statement here about being determined not to see the financial position of housing associations undermined. That is a very firm statement of intent. I think that is probably enough without further elaboration. I would like to pick up the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, about what people will really do when they have sold their tie and their jacket. I remind her that we are bringing in the universal credit processes of incentivisation of individuals alongside a massive welfare-to-work programme in the work programme. The price we as taxpayers and as a state are prepared to pay to help people in difficulty back into the workplace is more of a factor than the figures that we have been prepared to pay in the past. We are prepared to pay providers a reward of up to £14,000 to get the hardest to help back into the workplace. That is the kind of money that they can play with and it will get a lot of ties and jackets if that is the factor that is stopping somebody going to work. That is exactly why we are prepared to ramp up the reward. Let me finish by saying that the sector has shown real enthusiasm for these demonstration projects, which is our way of finding out how to do this. We are looking for six, and we have had a lot of responses. When I last looked—this is a couple of weeks out of date—we had already had 40 expressions of interest. There is real enthusiasm in the industry to get this right, and I am determined to get both what we need in universal credit and what we need for our housing industry sorted out, and we are doing it through these projects. I ask the noble Lord to withdraw the amendment.