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Child Poverty Bill

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baronesses, Lady Massey, Lady Hollis and Lady Walmsley, on the powerful and accurate presentations of the problem that they gave. I hope that the Minister and his department will read and reread them. Perhaps I might dare to suggest that this is a subject not only for the DWP but also for the children’s services. I wonder whether a joint consultation might be a possibility. Given what everybody has said, there can be no iota of doubt that the need is there. The problem is money. The noble Baronesses have said that they can see ways in which a more enlightened view would save money. Surely the time has come for somebody—maybe the Government or maybe a consortium of the charitable bodies in this area—to get an independent assessment and make some estimates, perhaps two or three projections of what would happen if local authorities were either encouraged to find the funds by greater efficiency or given the funds that they need. At the moment, the problem is that local authorities are struggling not to pay these allowances. One hears stories of children being brought by social workers to their grandmother’s door at 2 am, with the grandmother being told, "Either you take the child or we will put it into care", and the kindly grandmother cannot bear the idea of the child going into care. In the morning she realises that, because she has taken in the child, she is not entitled to any allowance. That is an absurd situation. We should look into the financial issues to see whether we can prove that some of these things would be worth doing.