Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill

Debate between Lord Bishop of Ripon and Leeds and Baroness Sherlock

Tuesday 19th March 2013 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Ripon and Leeds]

My Lords, I will also speak to the other amendments in this group. Amendments 2 and 8 are paving amendments for a new clause to protect child benefits and child tax credits from the effects of this Bill. The substantive amendment to which they refer is Amendment 11. This follows extensive discussion in Committee, and is designed to halt the disproportionately negative effects of the Bill on children and their welfare. Amendments 13, 14 and 15 are consequential, and no doubt the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, will speak to her Amendment 14A.

The Bill affects 30% of all households. Of those with dependent children, it affects 87%. Of lone-parent households, it affects 95%. Conspicuously, 11.5 million children suffer as a result of this Bill. This is in addition to the effects that our austerity measures have already had on children. In 2012, the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimated that there would indeed be a reduction of 0.9% in real-terms income for all households from 2010 to 2016. For a couple with two children, that fall will already, without this Bill, be 4.2%: equivalent to a fall of £215 per year for a couple without children, or £1,250 for a couple with two children. This Bill adds to that discrepancy, and it is that which cannot be fair.

It is true that we need particular concern for those in or on the verge of poverty. This Bill fails that test, too. For the poorest 20% of households, the IFS estimates to which I have referred suggest that the reduction in income is 7% from 2010 to 2016. In addition, 60% of the Bill’s savings come from those in the poorest third of our population, and 3% from those in the richest third. This will mean that, on the Government’s estimates, 200,000 more children will be in poverty, half of them in working families.

That in itself must make us pause to see what other ways there are to make the £0.9 billion savings which the child-related parts of this Bill are designed to produce in 2015-16. It is not for us today to declare what those alternatives should be. However, they do exist. Whether through reducing tax reliefs on pension contributions for the wealthy, or through introducing national insurance contributions on employer pension contributions, there are a number of different ways in which we could explore raising this money, which would not affect children in the ways in which this Bill does. We need to find a way for the burden of our fiscal challenges, so well described in the previous debate, to fall on those who, like me and many Members of this House, can afford to meet it, rather on than those who cannot. The noble Lord, Lord Newby, spoke in Committee of the importance of reviving the economy for the benefit of the future. That is absolutely right, but not at the expense of children’s needs now.

The major thrust of these amendments is to defend the nine out of 10 children in this country who are affected by the Bill. This effect is cumulative; it comes on top of the reductions already made. It has been argued that since many people are currently seeing wage increases of only 1%, benefits should also rise by only 1%. However, this Bill is an additional blow for those with children whose wages have increased by only 1%. Not only are their wages declining but, by this Bill, provision for their children will decline, too. These benefits affect those in work just as much as those who are not in work. None of the benefits referred to in these amendments is an out-of-work benefit. This is a transfer of the burden from all of us to those with children, and that increased burden on children cannot be right.

I continue to be particularly concerned at the continued gradual erosion of child benefit. The 1% cap comes after three years of the freezing of child benefit, so it is a cap on a figure that has already been reduced. From 2011 to 2015, the increase in child benefit will be 2%, rather than the estimated 16% of CPI over that period. Therefore, a couple with three children with one earner, such as a corporal in the Army, will lose £552 a year by 2015. A couple—one a childminder, let us say, earning £240 a week and the other a postal worker on £395 a week—with two children will lose £3.51 a week by 2015.

Child benefit has long been a crucial part of the support for families in our culture. That is particularly so for those on low wages. For very many families, child benefit is explicitly set aside to provide for children. Parents will struggle by making savings on their own lifestyle, sometimes even by going without meals themselves, but they will ensure that the child benefit that they receive is spent on their children. We owe it to the next generation to ensure that this element of our society, our children, is not disadvantaged, and certainly not disadvantaged by so much more than households without children.

In addition, child benefit plays a particular role in support of those in work because it acts as an earnings disregard in the calculation of housing and council tax benefits. Any reduction in child benefit is therefore a disincentive to returning to work. For a two-child family in work, on a low income and living in rented accommodation, the cut between 2010 and 2015 is not only the £4.80 a week in child benefit but an extra £4.10 in lost benefits. This working family on a low income therefore loses almost £9 a week.

I need to refer briefly to the third element in this package, that of the lower disability addition of universal credit. That is already being reduced from its current £57 a week to £28 a week under universal credit. Now it will be reduced further by this Bill. It seems extraordinary to reduce a benefit before it has even come into effect, especially when it provides for the needs of disabled children and their extra financial demands. These children need our support so they can live full and creative lives, and therefore benefit not just themselves but all of us. Children already contribute more than their fair share to our austerity burden. This Bill adds to their burden. I hope that we shall at least remove this extra pressure on them by accepting this amendment. I beg to move.

[Baroness Sherlock]

My Lords, I thank the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds for introducing this amendment. I also congratulate him on continuing to press his concerns in this area after failing to receive any comfort at earlier stages of the Bill. I congratulate the Lords spiritual in general for being willing to stand up for what they believe, despite the inevitable volley of artillery that came their way the moment they dared to raise their heads above the cathedral parapet. It may be that we have them to thank for the extended interest in welfare benefits, which is much more than we see normally. I am delighted to see it.

As we have heard, this amendment would remove a number of children’s benefits and credits from the scope of the Bill. Since we on these Benches wish to remove all benefits and tax credits from the scope of the Bill, we are pleased to support it. We have heard at different points in the passage of this Bill that it has a disproportionate impact on families and children. The Government’s impact assessment shows that two-thirds of households affected are families with children. We also know that the Bill will have a direct effect on child poverty in Britain. Ministers have previously announced—as the right reverend Prelate noted—that this Bill alone will put a further 200,000 children into relative poverty.

In Committee, I asked the Minister to tell the Committee what the impact would be on the three other poverty measures in the Child Poverty Act. I got nothing back at all. Now the Child Poverty Action Group has dragged some information from the Government by means of the Freedom of Information Act—although it should not have had to use a FOI request to get it. I would have hoped the Minister could have told us the information when I asked for it in Committee. The Government have not yet offered a narrative assessment even of measures, for example, of material deprivation. However, they were forced to admit what would happen to the number of children in absolute poverty. In response to that FOI request, the DWP admitted for the first time that it estimates that around 200,000 more children in Britain will be pushed into absolute poverty by this uprating policy.

This is a shocking figure, which reveals the depth of what is wrong with this policy. It also removes the Government’s defence that the problem is with the relative poverty measure, rather than with the impact on children themselves. On the back of those figures, some new analysis for the Child Poverty Action Group by Landman Economics found that an increase of 600,000 children in absolute poverty is likely between 2010 and 2015, and that is net of any improvements as a result of universal credit.

As we have heard at many stages of this Bill, too many parents go without to ensure that they can heat their homes and feed and clothe their children. As the costs of food and energy have soared, more parents spend more of their money on these basic costs. Yet vital support that they depend upon is being cut in real terms in order to hand a tax cut to the very richest. It is not only the Church of England that has come out against these priorities; Archbishop Peter Smith, vice-president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales stated:

“It is unjustifiable that the poorest children, who often have no other safety net, will be left bearing the brunt of economic difficulties as a result of significant real-term cuts to social security”.

The archbishop noted something that many of us know: that like many other charities across the country, Catholic agencies supporting parents find themselves ever more confronted with parents unable to afford even basic essentials, such as healthy meals or warm clothes for their children. That would be exacerbated by this Bill.

The real shame is that so many of those families have no alternative way of reducing that problem. Most victims of this Bill are working families. The parents are already doing the right thing; they are out working. One of the real disappointments about the debates we have had is the failure to acknowledge that, far from this being something that penalises only people who are not working, it is in fact the very same people who have had below-inflation or no pay increases and who have struggled repeatedly to get out, get work and get hours, who are hit by these cuts to tax and benefit support.

The Bill is a completely inappropriate way to address the uprating of essential state support for families. We already have perfectly good mechanisms to uprate annually in the light of inflation and prevailing economic conditions. These are poor choices for the Government to be making. The families who will be hit are not responsible for the failure of the Government to get the economy growing again. They are just doing their best to manage in difficult times, but the Government are planning to cut the value of the help that they get from the state to fund a tax cut for people earning £1 million a year. We should not be doing this, and we on these Benches are pleased and proud to support the amendment.

Welfare Reform Bill

Debate between Lord Bishop of Ripon and Leeds and Baroness Sherlock

Monday 23rd January 2012 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Ripon and Leeds]

Thank you very much. The answer to that question is £113 million, which is a minute proportion of the total cost of welfare benefit addressed in the Bill.

This cap is not simply targeted at wealthy families living in large houses. It will damage those who have to pay high rents, because often that rent has increased substantially in the course of occupancy of that house. An out-of-work couple with four children between five and 12 and with £250 a week rent, which is nothing out of the ordinary in many parts of the country, and £20 council tax, currently has an income under present arrangements of some £373 a week after housing costs are deducted. After the cap, that drops from £373 to £230, or £5.50 per person per day—not the £500 of the headlines that we have been seeing. That is much less than 40 per cent of median household income, and I do not understand what a family in those circumstances is meant to do. I do not believe that a child can have a good childhood in circumstances such as that.

I had a letter the other day from someone who disagreed fairly strongly with me and said that surely £500 a week should be enough to bring up a family in normal circumstances. I would not disagree if we were talking about £500 rather than £230. But those whose benefits are capped are not in normal circumstances; they have particular reasons for being in need. Often that will be a substantial rent, and sometimes there will be several children who may not be their own and who may have been taken into the family to avoid their costs falling on the state.

Child benefit is a non-means-tested benefit paid to both working and non-working families. In setting the cap, it has been ignored by the Government. It should also be ignored in calculating benefit income against the cap. Those who are suffering from the cap should be allowed to retain their child benefit. I know that, from 2013, higher taxpayers will not be entitled to child benefit—that is a different issue—but anyone taking home £26,000 will be entitled to it, as will many of those earning a good deal more than that. The intention of the benefit cap is to promote fairness between working families and those who, however hard they try, cannot find a job.

I admire and salute those who bring up families on low pay. I am very aware of poverty in working families and see it through my own working life. We need to defend the interests of those who are poorly paid, but we do not do so by refusing child benefit to those who are out of work. This amendment declares the importance of child benefit both for working families and for the unemployed. Both should receive state support in bringing up their children. Child benefit is paid for the needs not of adults but of children. It has a massively high take-up rate and is used to benefit children whatever their situation. We are rightly proud of its effect in helping the next generation.

This amendment is a compromise between the present situation and the cap as proposed in the Bill. Child benefit is paid at a rate of £20.30 for the first child and £13.40 for every subsequent child. At present, a child born into a family with benefit income of over £500 a week—that is, income over the cap—will receive £62.40 in benefit support through child benefit and child tax credits. Under the benefit cap as proposed, there is no support for that child at all. This amendment restores only £13.40 of the £62.40. In that sense it is an extremely modest amendment, but it does mean that there will be some money coming in for children in this pressurised and often suffering environment, as we discussed in the previous debate. It means that there is some help for children while maintaining the principle of the cap. All of us who have used child benefit or family allowance know just how crucial it has been in our own lives to bringing up our children. It is entirely inappropriate that the only people not allowed to receive child benefit should be those who are out of work and whose benefits are capped.

Quite a number of people have asked, especially over the past few days, why Members on this Bench have been particularly concerned about the needs of children in these welfare debates. Christianity, along with other faiths and beliefs, requires us to think most about those who have no voice of their own. Children who are in most need are one of the most evident examples of that, and the New Testament shows that Jesus had a very special concern for children. Children have no vote in our society; they probably do not answer YouGov questions.

This amendment goes some way towards protecting children by helping two groups especially. First, for children in families that are struggling to pay rent, it will mean fewer face homelessness—especially but not only in London. Secondly, it will help those in larger families. Children do not choose to be in large families and many are so because parents have taken in, and provided love for, those who would otherwise be a burden on the taxpayer. It cannot be right for someone who becomes unemployed not only to lose their job and have their assessed benefit cut but to be told that their children no longer have a right to child benefit.

This amendment declares our support for children, families and the next generation, and I beg to move.

[Baroness Sherlock]

My Lords, I speak in support of this amendment, to which my name is attached. I am grateful to the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds for tabling it, and I pay tribute to both his and the Children's Society's long-standing work in support of children. My concern about this amendment is that the measure has some very poor consequences, whether intended or unintended. Perhaps the Minister can tell us which they are.

I want to suggest three ways in which this cap, as the Government have put it together, is particularly badly constructed and three problems that it will cause. First, as we have heard, this measure will seriously and disproportionately affect children. A new DWP impact assessment came out today, which significantly changed the figures that we were working with previously. I have been able only to skim read it but I see from the headlines that the official impact assessment says that 220,000 children will be affected, and the losses in income those families will face are not small amounts. Initially, 67,000 households will lose an average of £83 a week, while 17 per cent of those affected will lose more than £150 a week. Those are very significant sums, so the behavioural impacts which the Minister wants to see happen will have to be very big indeed to address losses of that size, and I wonder what we can do about them.

I am not clear what steps those parents are meant to take to be able to avert those losses. That impact assessment says that 44 per cent of households affected are already living in social housing—in other words, in the cheapest accommodation available in their area. These are not families who are living it up in Kensington mansions, sipping cocktails by the pool before dinner. Forty-four per cent of them are already in social housing and most of the rest are in the kind of private housing that the noble Baroness, Lady Hussein-Ece, described earlier. As anyone who has had cause to go knocking on doors in London will know, there is housing out there which is astonishingly expensive but of astonishingly poor quality. The nature of the private sector market in London and other very high-cost areas is such that it is depressingly easy to rack up rents of £350 a week if you have two or three children.

What will happen and what are those families to do? In Committee, I put down an amendment which sought to exempt from the cap specific groups of vulnerable children who, for example, had been the subject of child protection orders, and I asked the Minister what those families could do to avoid being forced to move. He gave me three ways in which families could avoid that. The first was that they could negotiate a reduced rent with their landlord, although he had the good grace to acknowledge that may not succeed. The second way that the Minister suggested was that they could move into work, but when we look at the figures, we find that some 60 per cent of the families affected—a majority—are not required to work, either because they have small children or because they are sick or disabled and have limited capacity to work. In fact the Government's own policy of not trying to push sick people or the parents of young children out into work is now suggesting that they do that, which does not seem like a great idea either.

The final suggestion which the Minister made was that families could use their savings to pay the shortfall. I believe that one of your Lordships mentioned in the previous debate that the average family in Britain had just £300-worth of savings. That would not go very far in paying shortfalls of this nature, and one has to suspect that these families are likely to have less than the average amount of savings. We therefore have to accept that what will happen is that these families will be forced to move.

Many children's charities have made representations to me, as I am sure to many noble Lords, saying that they fear that families would be forced to move not just once but repeatedly. If they move to a cheaper area and rents rise faster than the cap, they have to move again. What are the consequences of that for the children? Again, I looked into this in Committee. The initial DWP impact assessment highlighted the possible damage to children forced to move school repeatedly, and the evidence is quite clear of the impact—the negative impact, obviously—which that has on children's academic achievement. As I also pointed out in Committee, forced moves reduce the ability of child protection professionals to keep track of families where children are at risk of abuse. I asked the Minister to write to me on how the Government would address those particular categories, and he did. I am afraid that it was with no very satisfactory encouragement and, again, I hope to give him the opportunity to be more specific when he responds to this.

In research that looks into the case reviews that follow the serious events that happen to children who have faced abuse and sometimes death, certain themes come out again and again. One of them, and I have heard this said by Members of this House, is that when everyone gathers around the table for a serious case review, someone always says, “Do you know, I wish we’d all talked before. Maybe, if we’d all talked to each other, this wouldn’t have happened”. One of the things that make it less likely that that communication will happen regularly is if the families in question move house repeatedly. Are we really going to force more families to do so? I am very concerned about what will happen in that regard, but I can see no way around it. What else can we do? We have to press on.