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Welfare Reform Bill

I agree with a lot of what the noble Lord said about the importance of engaging with these customers, making it specific, addressing people’s particular needs and having the flexibility in the system to do so. That is what is there. With respect, I take issue with some of the wild assertions about caseload overload and the system not working and so on. We must certainly not be complacent. A strong message has come from this engagement, and we must obviously take that seriously. On funding, I stress—and it has been stressed before, certainly at Second Reading—that the roll-out of Pathways is fully funded. I do not agree that personal advisers do not have sufficient time. The testimony of customers shows that the assertion is not correct. On using external providers, the contracts will specifically state the opposite—people cannot be ignored and all customers, with all conditions, have to be provided with support. That will be a key part of the contractual arrangements and part of the monitoring of the contracts that we put in place.