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Child Poverty Bill

My Lords, I have a great deal of sympathy for these amendments and I congratulate the previous speakers, the noble Baronesses, Lady Massey, Lady Walmsley and Lady Hollis, the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, and the noble Lord, Lord Northbourne. I confess that I regret that my name is not also on the amendment, as it is smack on the nose. Some powerful speeches have been made. I shall not go over the same ground, as I want to come at the issue from a slightly different angle. In the pursuit of individualism, we have built up the individual at the expense of extended families. The vacuum that we have created has in many cases been filled bureaucratically. Families and friends are often disempowered from helping themselves by that bureaucracy. How much better it would be to have systems that reinforce natural family networks and kinship patterns. Our party has been making the point that we have developed a system in which bureaucratic processes take control and actively disempower the natural support networks that we relied on in the past and which other societies rely on to this day—and they are the happier for it. I would like the amendment to be accepted. Clearly a process will go on today, but I shall be interested to see what we do with it at the next stage. It is entirely likely that, if the amendment were assessed on a real cost return basis, it would save the state money. I am interested to hear the Minister’s views on the real costs, if any, or on the real savings, which I suspect that there would be.