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Work and Families Bill

If it would help, I would be happy to write to noble Lords between Grand Committee and Report with statistics relating to the costs of the noble Baroness’s amendment and in relation to the take-up of maternity allowance. I would like to respond in further detail to the noble Baroness on that point. I recognise what the noble Earl said. We know that as ““spend to save””. The argument departments make to the Treasury on a frequent basis is that upfront investment will lead to savings downstream. The Treasury is not always sympathetic to that point. Of course, the earlier you can make interventions to help children, the greater the impact later on in reducing crime and social exclusion. I have no argument with the point that he makes. In a sense, what we are doing today and the expenditure to which we are already committed indicate our recognition of that. There is no real disagreement between us in principle. The question is about the actual cost of what is proposed. There is an important principle in relation to payments being made that are higher than the person is actually earning in work. But, at the end of the day, the changes and investment that we are making are focused on the points raised by the noble Earl.