Welfare Reform Bill

Baroness Drake Excerpts

Wednesday 14th December 2011 Lords Chamber

I have talked before about how to support people—a matter raised by the noble Baronesses, Lady Lister and Lady Hollis. We need to get proper banking products into the system. At least one thing that we need is a simple direct debit system. The money should flow in and out on the same day so that the example given by the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, works. We do not want a gap there, and we must be able to manage that. The point is that if we can manage it with a banking product, as the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, suggested, then people can float off from benefit dependency into the world of work without—

[Baroness Drake]

I speak as someone who is rather preoccupied with financial inclusion. The Minister is describing a process, but if there is a product—a bank account—that works for low-income or unemployed people and the account is in debt, how does one know that the bank will pay the direct debit? Can he be confident that it will pay if there is a deficit in that account?

[Lord Freud]

That is exactly what we need to ensure and that is exactly what we are discussing with the banking groups. Specific banking support is exactly the issue that we need to get right.