Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, the amendment seeks to remove child benefit from the calculation of benefit income when determining the cap. We had a bit of discussion about that in the previous grouping. The argument for this is really quite straightforward: child benefit is a non-means-tested benefit paid to all families, working or non-working. It is not at all an employment benefit and has no effect on whether a person would be better off in work than out of work. It is far better to regard it as a grant to children. It represents the most effective way in which we as a society invest in the next generation, or the next but one. It is manifestly unfair if child benefit is to be counted as income for non-working families but not counted as income for working families, because there we have talked about earnings. I hope that we can simply remove it from the calculations. If we do, that will release perhaps another 20,000 children from poverty. That discussion has taken place already. We have heard that 99 per cent of families with children claim this benefit, but I do not see what that has to do with the present discussions or with any of the Government’s purposes in establishing the cap. If I am wrong about that, no doubt the Minister will tell me, as well as telling me what effect it can have. The group also includes Amendment 99C, a compendium amendment to which the noble Baronesses, Lady Taylor and Lady Hayter, and the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, have added their names. It seeks to put a number of exemptions in the Bill so that they are not subject to the whims of future Secretaries of State. As I understand it, there has been movement by the Government to exempt people in three groups: those in work, those with disability living allowance and widows. What I seek here is simply to get those exemptions into the Bill, and others will speak about them in particular. Those who have recently left employment—one of the other groups mentioned—are vulnerable, particularly if their leaving employment is the result of developing a disability, and earlier we had a discussion about just how the transitional arrangements work. They are still going to have to wait for six months before qualifying for personal independence payments. To go back to something that the noble Lord, Lord German, was saying, giving people time to find another job is likely to help to keep them in touch with the labour market. Much the same goes for those who are unable to make work pay, which is particularly the case where childcare costs are very high. A small but very vulnerable group of families will be unable to escape poverty by moving into work but they will face poverty through the cuts if they remain unemployed. The exemption of lone parents with children under five is particularly important. The current system and all our arguments and discussions recognise that those additional commitments make it hard for them to move into work and, indeed, recognise that they are not expected to seek work, which also goes back to the Government’s purpose in having the cap. If they are not expected to seek work—and I absolutely agree with the argument that lone parents with children aged under five should not be expected to seek work—it seems unreasonable to place a cap on the benefits that they should receive when we acknowledge that they should not be put under pressure to seek work. However, perhaps my greatest concern of all in this group relates to carers, particularly kin carers. Other noble Lords will speak to their amendments, seeking to protect those who take on this very demanding role. It is often true that family and friends or kinship carers live in large households as a result of taking on children whose parents have died. They are in particular difficulty and often face a particularly tragic situation. Some 60 per cent of those who take on other people’s children in this way, as kin carers, give up jobs in order to do so. They are often advised to do so. To impose a cap in those circumstances seems entirely inappropriate. These amendments continue to explore that protection of children to which we all aspire and which we have been discussing for the past hour or so. I hope that we in this Committee can do something to achieve this. I beg to move.