Welfare Reform Bill

Indeed, I very much agree with that. In fact, one of my other questions to the Minister is to ask what assessment has been made of the impact of the capping policy on RSL’s ability to charge rents of up to 80 per cent of market value, which is the key to the housing programme that the Government have promulgated. They have moved away capital spend to revenue spend. Perhaps the Minister could spell out more generally the whole evidence base for this policy that is presented to us. I also ask the Minister—because part of the rationale is supposedly its impact on work incentive—whether, out of the 50,000 households expected to be affected by the cap, he could split that 50,000 between those who are within income support currently, those who are within the WRAG, those in the support group and those in the full conditionality regime of JSA. Does he agree that the cap will effectively create a cliff edge that undermines a key benefit of the universal credit? Whether it is hours or income, movement to either side of the cut-off point could be dramatic. What modelling has been done to assess the consequences of that? Finally—for the time being—I ask the noble Lord for his comments on the report from the Centre for Social Justice, which I think is an organisation dear to the Minister’s heart. It says, "““we do share some of the criticisms about how such cuts are being introduced in the welfare system””." That was a reference to child benefit. The Centre for Social Justice goes on to state: "““But our main contention is with current plans to introduce a full benefit cap on households in one fell swoop. Without the careful phasing in of such a cap … the CSJ is concerned it will bring hardship to as many as 50,000 large families who will have the plug pulled from under them overnight””." As we discussed, average losses are projected to be £93 a week. The Centre for Social Justice states that, ““it is likely to be devastating”” and that the Government should think again urgently about their implementation plan. Does the Minister accept that assessment?