Social Security: Child Poverty
Debate between Earl Howe and Lord Katz
Lord Katz (Lab)
I am pleased to say that I agree entirely with the noble Lord. We are taking a cross-government, holistic approach to sorting out this problem. That goes as far as our £39 billion 10-year programme for more social and affordable housing, so that we can tackle some of the outrageous things we have seen around the use of temporary accommodation and make sure that people have access to a good standard of living.
Earl Howe (Con)
My Lords, one small but significant way of contributing to the life chances of young people would be the automatic release of unclaimed child trust funds. What consideration are the Government giving to doing that?
Lord Katz (Lab)
It is always a delight to hear from those in the party opposite on this, because of their childlike wonder and astonishment as they discover new features and issues in a system that they designed and have overseen for quite some time. I am happy to write to the noble Earl with more details on that scenario. We are considering all the ways to ensure that we have an affordable welfare bill, including making sure that we have efficiencies across the board.