Low-income Families: Benefits Freeze

Baroness Janke Excerpts

Monday 13th January 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Stedman-Scott]

My noble friend makes a point about tax credits. While I have no doubt that they did a lot of good, some of their ramifications caused difficulty, in that we had an annual rather than a monthly reconciliation, as we are trying to have under universal credit. I believe that the monthly reconciliation under universal credit, while not perfect, is much better than waiting until the end of the year. On child poverty and family breakdown, obviously there are families who have great difficulty fiscally, and we have to try to help them, but the evidence shows that helping parents to move into and remain in work is the best option for moving them out of poverty. We want to see child poverty fall and remain determined to tackle it. My door is open for further discussion on this; I will do anything I can to move things forward.

[Baroness Janke (LD)]

My Lords, is the Minister aware that in August 2018, two-thirds of those who had benefits cut were single parents? Single parents in the bottom 20% income bracket will have lost 25% of their 2010 income by 2021-22. Ending the benefit freeze will not restore this, and half of the total number in single- parent families are in poverty. Does the noble Baroness agree that children in single-parent families are doubly disadvantaged as a result of government policies? What plans do the Government have to end this glaring injustice and to ensure that these children get a fair deal?

[Baroness Stedman-Scott]

Again, I understand the points that the noble Baroness makes. We can all recall incidents in our families—I can in my own; my niece is a single parent, and life is a challenge at the best of times. The benefit cap levels were put in place to try to restore some fairness to the system. Due to the election taking place, the levels were not reviewed in the last Parliament, but there remains a statutory duty to look at them, which will be done at an appropriate time.