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Benefits Uprating

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for not blaming me for the weather. I am grateful, too, that she welcomes the uprating. I can no sooner forecast the weather, or the bitterness or otherwise of the winter in west Yorkshire, than I can the unemployment trends for forthcoming years—but I am sure that all services, not simply on the benefits side, will look at that problem as it affects vulnerable elderly people. I take my hon. Friend's point about lone parents. I am not in the business of demonising lone parents in the shameful way in which others have done and continue to do. However, we think it is right that, at the core of the welfare reform White Paper outlined yesterday, we afford them all the support and help they can possibly have. Notwithstanding what she says about barriers such as child care, as my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions said, no lone parent will be forced into a job, however appropriate, if child care is not available. The hon. Member for Rochdale (Paul Rowen) asked about negative inflation. We enshrined a 2.5 per cent. floor in the Pensions Act 2008, so if inflation goes down to zero, as some anticipate, there will always be at least that 2.5 per cent. I am sorry I forgot to say that earlier.