Welfare Reform Bill

Baroness Drake Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd November 2011 Grand Committee

[Lord Freud]

No; we have made it clear that it would apply to housing benefit and not to other benefits. The cap will not have full coverage until universal credit comes in.

[Baroness Drake]

I did not get the chance to mention this when other issues were being discussed. The Minister gave a blunt message on what had caused benefit dependency. But the Bill is also setting the welfare system for people who have no record of benefit dependency. They are hard-working people who from time to time experience difficulty. We know that the Government are considering greater flexibility in the labour market. The newspapers have rumours about making group redundancies easier. Large-scale redundancies are much easier because it cuts the amount of consultation and makes it easier to dismiss people. I should like to push the Minister on the point that, notwithstanding the Government’s position on a cap, the transition to that cap needs to be considered so that the principle of the cap is not broken when hard-working people who do not have a record of benefit dependency are trying to engage in the labour market.

[Lord Freud]

I fully accept that point, as I have already indicated. I shall bear that point very much in mind as we go through the next stages.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord De Mauley]

I understand what the noble Baroness wants and I am grateful to her for allowing me to write.

[Baroness Drake]

If there is an intention to put much more emphasis into making the reconsideration stage effective and efficient, is the department intending to commission an independent audit of that and to publish the findings so that people can have confidence in the effectiveness of the changes at the reconsideration stage?

[Lord De Mauley]

It will not be an independent process but it will be monitored closely in the department.