Welfare Reform Bill

Lord McAvoy Excerpts

Monday 10th October 2011 Grand Committee

[Lord McAvoy]

My Lords, although I did not intend to speak after the amendment was moved so excellently by my noble friend Lady Lister of Burtersett, she holds to the hope that the Minister’s attitude is not set in stone, so I have decided to contribute a point of view. One thing about the other place along the Corridor is that its Members come from various backgrounds, especially from working people. That House achieves a balance and gets a view that perhaps individuals over here do not have. When people over there hear a view, it may influence how they vote on legislation.

My noble friend Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope said that he does not have much experience of this, but I sure that if he thinks back to where he comes from—Cranhill, a housing estate in Glasgow—he will remember that when the family allowance of eight shillings was paid on every week on Tuesday, it was a lifesaver. He was also correct to point out that it is being sexist against women to say that they carried the burden of budgeting. They were responsible for making sure that the family budget and the household were run properly. Certainly that was the case in my family, one with a very matriarchal mother. Without her, I think our family would have been lost. I can assure colleagues that the certainty of a weekly payment, not a monthly payment, is still very important to a certain sector of society.

The amendments offer choice. I know that the noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, criticised that as perhaps being confusing, but the noble Lord, Lord Boswell of Aynho, in very reasonable tones defended and advocated it. I certainly believe in the choice outlined in these amendments. In addition, other amendments would provide the certainty of knowing that these decisions, which will impact on so many people’s lives, will be covered by a review. We can look at the evidence to see the effect of different types of payment periods.

I am encouraged by the Minister’s attitude and I hope that my noble friend Lady Lister has read it right. I want to bring to the debate the point of view of someone from a family for whom, when we were growing up, that payment of eight shillings of family allowance was worth a lot. I am sure that quite a lot of people remember the family allowance, although I had better be quiet about age. I can assure the Minister and my colleagues that that eight shillings a week in family allowance, paid every Tuesday to the mother, the person who actually ran the household and looked after the children, was absolutely essential. I hope therefore that the Minister can see his way at least to considering some movement on that.

[Lord Skelmersdale]

My Lords, before the debate continues, I have to say that I am afraid that the noble Lord, Lord McAvoy, has somewhat misunderstood what I said. I came down firmly in favour of fortnightly payments. What I did not say, if for no other reason, was that the move from weekly to fortnightly payments is so recent. I do not believe that it has yet bedded down.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Freud]

I think the noble Lord, with his normal subtlety in his amendment, has made a distinction between bi-monthly and fortnightly. This is one of those issues, to be honest, where if you start delving into it, you will end up with daily rates because of the arbitrariness of both weeks and months. It is not a straightforward thing to do. Clearly, at one level all the utility systems are driven on a monthly basis, while other areas are driven on a weekly basis. With this system, we are one of the drivers of the way people behave and of social change. We should not forget that; how we do this will shape the norm, so it is not just a question of saying, “This is what everyone does. We must adapt to it”. There is an element of saying, “If we do it like this, we will shape the way people arrange their lives”.

Lord McAvoy: The system has a degree of flexibility if you alter the way benefits are paid. For instance, when it is a holiday Monday, the whole thing seems to change and payments can be altered then.

[Lord Freud]

My Lords, in the spirit of developing a system together, which we seem to have moved into, we can look at a greater amount of flexibility. Some things are not that expensive to do, but others are. Payment systems are not necessarily hugely difficult. I do not have my computer gurus sitting around me whispering how much things cost, but my feeling is that there are areas of flexibility here which we are going to explore in great detail in the next year or so in order to get this right. We can be flexible and make changes if we feel that things are not right.

I turn now to the series of questions raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, on the relationship with housing benefit. I will try to deal with them one by one. The universal credit will be an itemised statement. It is being developed and at the moment comprises three layers. You will see the summary on the top sheet, so to speak, and a somewhat more elaborated thing when you hit the button for the next level, and then you see pages of the stuff at the third level, which we do not think a lot of people will go to. However, we give them the option to do that. The statement is simple; it itemises the intention. The structure that we have arrived at has been the subject of a lot of toing and froing with the customer insight people. A couple of weeks ago I sat on one side of a piece of glass watching how people were using the system. That is where we have ended up in that particular bit.

I was asked whether this process would be slowed down to the rate of the slowest element. Where you have some decided elements, the JSA rate and so on, we should be able to get that going straight away without tying it up. We will be able to separate out elements with new claims involving big new changes rather than the whole claim waiting for the last little bit of evidence on, say, housing to come through. We are looking at tackling this matter much more flexibly.