---

Welfare Reform and Incapacity Benefit

We will make a statement about our reforms for the Child Support Agency. My right hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Brightside said that he intended to introduce the proposals before the end of the year and I shall try to stick to that. We must discuss the appropriate format for the statement—whether we make it here or, as was planned, in the Select Committee. However, there will be a proper opportunity for hon. Members to examine the proposals and pass judgment on them. We strongly believe that people have the right to work and the right to the support that will enable them to do so. However, alongside those rights go responsibilities—the responsibility, when possible, to take up the support, actively to seek work and for each person to make their contribution to the well-being of our society.