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Welfare Reform Bill

I thank all noble Lords who have supported the amendment. I was particularly taken with the idea put forward by the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, that Jobcentre Plus could perhaps make contact with a social worker, or someone who might be helpful, to explain what is going on to a person who is undergoing some kind of trauma in their lives. I am disappointed that the Minister is not going to move on the issue of the five days. However, he gave us a very full reply as to what the steps would be. I was very interested in the story of the noble Lord, Lord Rix, concerning the postcode. I find that if someone gets the postcode wrong, a letter takes a month to reach me, but if they do not put a postcode on at all, the letter is there within a day or two. That is quite important. In London, if someone puts SW12 instead of putting SW1—I have had this happen—a letter could take a whole month to arrive. If someone says to Jobcentre Plus staff, "I didn’t receive this letter", the response will probably be, "That’s a good try-on". Therefore, there are some concerns because five days is such a short time. I shall study what the Minister said with great care. In the mean time, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 37 withdrawn. Amendments 38 to 42 not moved.