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Welfare Reform Bill

This amendment was foreshadowed by the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, in her Second Reading speech and we warmly support it from these Benches. As she has said, it is intended to ensure that the income disregard for lone parents is at least the value of 15 hours at the national minimum wage. That is where the complication of the benefit system comes in. As she said, ESA claimants may claim up to £92 a week, although I think it has gone up, without losing access to means-tested benefits, enabling them to work in jobs of fewer than 16 hours, after which they would become entitled to tax credits. However, single parents on benefits can earn only £20 a week, meaning that there is no financial incentive to work in jobs of between four and 16 hours. Gingerbread, about which we have heard much this afternoon, is in favour of the amendment and says that on its helpline it hears from lone parents who have had their hours cut below 16 because of the recession and so can no longer afford to work. It is worth pointing out, as the noble Baroness has said today and on previous occasions, that this would do a huge amount for child poverty, which often simply means lone-parent poverty. We support the amendment and hope that it will receive a favourable response from the Minister.