Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, the Minister will not be entirely surprised that I raise the question of the possible knock-on effects of the Bill on the services provided by the devolved Administrations. It could no doubt be argued that there is an equivalent or parallel question arising with regard to the consequences for local government in England, which I shall touch on a little later. I tabled the amendment at this stage, towards the end of Part 1, because several of its provisions relating to disability, housing benefit and children have an impact on matters that are partly or wholly devolved. I could well have raised this question in different parts of the Bill but I shall content myself with just raising the issues at this stage if that is acceptable. I remind the Committee that for both Wales and Scotland housing, social services, education, children’s policy and local government are totally devolved. It is the responsibility of the Government of Wales to provide the finance needed for those responsibilities within Wales. On numerous occasions during the past four weeks we have heard the Minister repeatedly resort to the discretionary payments and provisions that may be made by local authorities in some circumstances to make up for any cash or support losses suffered by vulnerable individuals who may lose out under the changes in this legislation. Someone has to pay for that at the end of the day, whether it is for emergency housing, social workers’ time or effort, or for the care bill needed for children or whoever. The amendment is a modest one. It calls merely for the impact of legislation on devolved services to be discussed with relevant Ministers in Cardiff and Edinburgh before the provisions of Part 1 are implemented, which presumes that an impact assessment would have been made to enable that discussion to take place. The Minister may say that we are already having a dialogue with the devolved Administrations on these matters—I see him nodding, surprise, surprise—but I can assure him that Ministers in Wales have not so far received responses to their concerns that have put their minds at rest on a number of these points. For example, Welsh Ministers have expressed concern that changes to DLA rules will have a seriously greater effect in Wales than in England. There are 126,000 DLA claimants of working age in Wales, compared to less than 1.5 million in England. Wales has 5 per cent of the relevant population but 8 per cent of the claimants. Welsh Ministers have expressed in writing, and made representations to Her Majesty’s Government about, their fear that these legislative changes will make disproportionate additional demands on social services departments in Wales and on the budgets of those service providers, and have disproportionate consequences for devolved budgets. May I draw the Minister’s attention to the fact that paragraph 17 of the Government of Wales concordat with the department for Work and Pensions states that, "““where … decisions taken by DWP lead to additional costs for the Assembly Government where other arrangements””—" that is, the Barnett formula— "““do not exist automatically to account for such extra costs, the extra costs will be met by the decision maker whose policy results in those additional costs””." Therefore, can the Minister assure us that additional resources will be made available to the Government of Wales—likewise to Scotland—to meet those demands under that provision? On another aspect, we have heard on a number of occasions that independent healthcare professionals may be asked to make assessments. If those duties fall on health departments in Wales, who picks up the Bill? Also in Wales, there are almost 100,000 DLA claimants of pensionable age, compared with 830,000 in England. Clearly, that is a much higher level—partly because a lot of people choose to retire to Wales—and in Wales both the care and mobility components of DLA are taken into account at the local authority’s discretion in the charging assessments for non-residential care. Any changes in DLA will have a bearing on local government finance to that extent. As we have been meeting in this Committee today, the Low review, Independence, Choice and Control, has been published and launched beneath us. It is interesting to note that it picks up the impact that there could be on local authorities in England. It says that: "““Local authorities were concerned that should the proposed removal of the mobility component go ahead, they would lack the resources to meet any shortfall””." One council commented that it, "““is concerned that the removal of DLA mobility … will inevitably lead to a shortfall in income for residential providers, and that providers will seek to remedy the position through increased fees””." To that extent, we have a problem that is applicable in England, although obviously it applies in a slightly different way in Wales and Scotland. I dare say that other noble Lords will have had representations from COSLA in Scotland. They state that COSLA has significant concerns about the scope and timeframe for these changes and the impact that they will have for services and income streams for local authorities. Welfare reform is likely to pose major financial and service delivery risks, they say, while at the same time increasing demand for local government services. Welsh Ministers have also expressed concern that the changes to DLA eligibility will lead to an increase in the number of people thrown into debt and poverty, with all the additional responsibilities that that leads to falling on other agencies to provide the help that they need. Finally, I refer to the knock-on effects for devolved Administrations arising from the changes in housing benefit. The changes in eligibility rules for housing benefit will hit some 40,000 social housing tenants in Wales, with a reduction of £11 on average for one-bedroom circumstances and £20 a week if there are two bedrooms. In that context, COSLA says that increased rent arrears will reduce councils’ direct income and their ability to borrow, and will require councils to scale back their capital programmes. The Minister has also emphasised that the Government have a housing programme— I believe it is in England only—which is relevant to the rebalancing of housing stock. Have there been discussions for similar provision to be made available by the devolved Administrations, which have responsibility for housing in Wales and in Scotland? In Committee on 20 October, the Minister acknowledged that there would be a financial impact on the local authorities and devolved Administrations in relation to housing, not least because of the impact on existing staff and the possible need for the application of TUPE rules. He gave an assurance that the new burdens doctrine applies to local government additional impositions. Can he confirm that the new burdens doctrine also applies to the devolved Administrations? Undoubtedly, some of these questions will arise in later parts of this Bill, so perhaps the Minister can give us some reassurance at this stage so that I do not need to return to them on every part of the Bill? I beg to move.