Welfare Reform Bill

Putative is a good word. The figures to which he was referring came from internal modelling from the Department for Communities and Local Government which had not been externally validated. That analysis was out of date, having been produced in January and before we announced that we were looking at transitional arrangements for dealing with particularly hard cases. It is not possible to predict robustly the effects of this policy on homelessness as we cannot anticipate the resulting behaviours of tenants or their landlords. We will think carefully about all these matters, but the clause is drafted so that we have all the powers we need to ensure, through regulations, that the cap achieves its purpose in the fairest way possible. Picking up the question of the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, on the devolved Administrations, under Clause 93(9) we will be able to reduce only payments that are the responsibility of the United Kingdom Parliament. No payments that are within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales or the Welsh Ministers will be reduced by the cap.