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Welfare Reform Bill

I am not going to hold the Committee up by supporting the amendment again at too great a length, but of course I absolutely support it. As a co-founder of the National Centre for Independent Living—for 10 years that organisation has developed to assist support schemes to develop, grow and thrive—I can clearly tell Members of the Committee that, where there was a support scheme, there were disabled people emancipated, coming out of their back rooms, employing people, learning from others, getting lots of peer support, moving on, having families and getting jobs. Surely that is what this legislation is all about. When there is a support scheme, that will happen. There is nothing better than peer support to get people out of the back room and living when they have spent many decades dependent on the state. I absolutely support the amendment.