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Benefits Simplification

I endorse the comments of my hon. Friend from the Select Committee. He makes a useful and telling contribution. I believe that the Department's primary function is to receive claimants who are in distressed circumstances, minimise the period for which those circumstances apply and get those people back into work in the shortest possible time. Sadly, the complexity of the benefits system discourages some people from the latter. For example, there is a genuine problem with lone parents in London. Of especial concern are individuals in the private rented sector, with its high housing costs, and what happens when they move into work. We have heard innumerable examples of people who prefer a low income, with the security of knowing that it is there every week, to earning a higher income in the world of work, but with the insecurity of not knowing when a new claim will be set up, because, it has to be said, lots of authorities in London are pretty poor at administering housing benefit. In many cases people accept a much lower level of income with the security of knowing that it is there. I take no offence at a lone parent with two or three young children who says, ““Blow that, I'll stick where I am—at least I know what I've got. I can budget for that and I can manage it.”” That is an unintended consequence of the complexities in the system. Another wonderful progressive change by the Government was to abolish the horrendous therapeutic earnings and introduce permitted working for those with disabilities. [Interruption.] There are a load of notes coming in from the officials—I have not said that much. The Government introduced permitted working, which was a major step forward, particularly in terms of the dignity of people with disabilities. Unfortunately, there are four sets of rules for permitted working under four different types of circumstance. If we introduced one rule and allowed everyone on incapacity benefit the highest level of earnings, of about £89 a week, the notional loss to the Exchequer would be minimal, but the ease and comfort for disabled people would be enormous. As a side point, there might also be some political kudos to be gained. Again—I have already mentioned the various earnings disregards—good intentions have been somewhat tarnished by the need for complexity. We are victims of the age that we live in, and among all this Departments such as the Department for Work and Pensions sadly cannot operate without IT systems—well, they could if there were about 1 million civil servants instead of 80,000 or 90,000, but I do not think that anybody wants to go to those lengths. It is fair to say that the Department has been let down by contractors—I would not put it any more strongly than that.