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Benefits Simplification

I quite understand the need to put the claimant at the centre, but it is clear from the hon. Gentleman's own argument that people live their lives in quite different ways. I was a member of the Select Committee in the last Parliament and I well remember the not very successful Doug Smith, chief executive of the Child Support Agency at the time, saying words to the effect that one of the reasons why the system was not working very well in the CSA was that it had not realised what complex lives people led. Fortunately he resigned, but that presents a real difficulty. Because of the complexity of people's lives, if we try to make a system claimant-centred, it will either be complex or very expensive.