Welfare Reform Bill

Debate between Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon and Lord Newton of Braintree

Monday 23rd January 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newton of Braintree]

I meant to say at the beginning, but I do not think I did, that if anyone can be held responsible for the continued existence of child benefit in this country, it is me. In the late 1980s, it had not been uprated for two or three years. I became Secretary of State for Social Security. I fought tooth and nail to reintroduce the uprating of child benefit.

I had a lot of battles with a lot of colleagues and managed to do it in the form of introducing the increased rate for the eldest child—the first child—which was laughed at at the time but appears again to have stood the test of time. I yield to no one as a defender of child benefit and I certainly do not want to abolish it. I have reservations about the Government’s proposals on taxing it—they will come up at another time—but I will not be accused of being hostile to child benefit. I am simply saying that I support it but I also support the objective of ensuring that children are in households where it pays for the people involved to work if possible.

[Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon]

I am most grateful to the noble Lord for making the point. Indeed, he deserves all the credit for child benefit—he does not claim it as he is not an immodest man—and millions in this country owe him a great debt. The question that puzzles me, and perhaps he can help, is: how is it right, morally or otherwise, to deny child benefit to somebody on £26,000 a year when they get it on £80,000?

[Lord Newton of Braintree]

The issue is at what level the benefit cap should be set, and whether to set a different level that automatically puts people with children, depending on the number, in a position in which fewer of them can afford to take jobs at the rates they are likely to be able to command. It is a matter of judgment not of fact. It is an issue that cannot be evaded, but it has been evaded in a lot of the discussion we have had tonight. I will not vote for the amendment but I will not dismiss the concerns, particularly those addressed by the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss. They need to be addressed by Ministers in working out the detail. I repeat my phrase that I will join in on holding their feet to the fire but I will not join in on this rather hasty and ill considered amendment today.