Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, I support Amendments 45 and 46, to which my name is attached. The purpose of the amendments has already been explained and the case has been made convincingly. I simply want to add to that. Young people who are disabled from birth or early in life have been entitled to claim ESA or its predecessors from the age of 16 since 1975, as the noble Lord, Lord Patel, pointed out. That has been accepted by all the main parties as a fair and proper way to treat young disabled people. Indeed, my noble friend Lord McKenzie did not thank me for reminding the Grand Committee that in a previous Parliament he was urged to be more generous to this group of young people by the then Opposition spokesperson, the noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale. I was therefore rather surprised when the Minister argued in Grand Committee that no other age group can qualify for contributory ESA without having paid, or been treated as having paid, national insurance contributions. That is because all other age groups will have had the opportunity to earn such contributions, as the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, and the noble Lord, Lord Patel, have already pointed out. We are talking about a very small group. According to the Government’s figures, about 15,000 young people are likely to be affected each year. Some of these will qualify for income-related ESA, although sometimes at a lower rate, when there will be an estimated average loss of £25 a week, which is a significant sum for those on a low income. They may become automatically eligible for passported benefits such as free prescriptions, depending on the outcome of the review currently being undertaken by the Social Security Advisory Committee, but that does not justify removing their underlying entitlement to a weekly income. One in 10—or 1,500 a year—will lose all entitlement to benefit, perhaps because they have a partner in full-time work or because of the capital rules. What kind of young people are we talking about? In Grand Committee I gave examples provided to me by CPAG that illustrated the kind of young people likely to be affected, which I know noble Lords found very moving. They were of young disabled people in foster care or living with a kinship carer; young disabled people who had built up savings to be used to help them maintain their independence; and young disabled people who might be fearful of forming a relationship for fear of losing their independent income. I will not repeat the case studies but will provide a couple more that CPAG has kindly given me: "““Martin has been disabled since childhood. For years his parents have been putting money into a savings account for him, including saving money from his disability living allowance. Now a young man, Martin cannot work but can nevertheless look forward to living an independent life. Claiming contributory ESA in youth will help him to do this. Because of the capital his parents have painstakingly saved for him, he is excluded from income-related ESA. Instead of having the means to pay for the independent living equipment and support he needs, if he cannot access ESA in youth he will have to run down his savings on day to day living costs, leaving him with no financial cushion for extra needs or against the day that his parents are no longer able to provide any support.""Ryan is 17 and has significant mental health problems. He currently lives with his grandmother. He is looked after by the local authority which pays his grandmother a small allowance for his upkeep. She cannot get child benefit or tax credits for him and is finding it difficult to manage. Ryan can get ESA in youth to provide him with his own independent income and some security for himself and his grandmother””." Noble Lords may well ask what could possibly justify depriving this very small group of vulnerable young people of the independent means that offer them some security without the vagaries of means-testing. Is it a matter of principle? No principle has yet been enunciated by the Government and I think we can all agree that the something for something principle can be suspended in these circumstances. Is it cost? It would appear not. The department has indicated that this is not about cost. That said, the Minister’s final card in Grand Committee was the statement that the amendment tabled there, a slightly less restrictive version of Amendment 46, would reduce the expected cumulative benefit savings by around £10 million by 2015-16. That is cumulative, not annual, savings and, as was pointed out in Grand Committee, £10 million was easily within the margin of error. That was a very weak card to play. What it seems to come down to is administrative simplicity. I am not sure that any policy that increases reliance on means-tested benefits, which the impact assessment acknowledges will be the case, adds to the sum of simplicity in the benefits system. I do not believe that your Lordships would want to deprive a small group of very vulnerable young people of a degree of financial security simply to make the overall system look tidier administratively. I hope I am not doing the Minister a disservice when I say I did not feel that his heart was in the uncharacteristically feeble defence he put up for this clause in Committee. If there are any remaining technical problems with the amendment, including those raised about the European Court of Justice ruling and its possible implications—which I admit I was not aware of until today, although the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, has made some suggestions about how they could be dealt with in an alternative amendment—these could be put right at Third Reading. Given that the costs will be lost in the margin of error, I hope that the Minister will show the same openness of spirit with this amendment as he showed with the earlier government amendment, and accept either this amendment or one along similar lines—or, as the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, has suggested, that he will bring forward an alternative amendment at Third Reading. If he cannot make such a commitment, I hope that your Lordships’ House will stand up for this very small group of vulnerable young people.