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Child Poverty Bill

I thank the Minister for that response. I should assure him that this amendment is not trying to get employment for psychoanalysts. I am most grateful for the observations of the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, and the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley. The noble and learned Baroness in particular put some of the arguments better than I managed to myself. Good work is going on. Dame Carol Black and Rachel Perkins have produced work that meshes together well. It is for that reason that I am slightly disappointed, rather than baffled, that the Minister finds it worthwhile to resist this rather minor change. The reason I think it is a valuable change, and why I think that he would consider it of value, is that mental health is not a marginal issue in the community we are talking about; it is a substantial part of the problem. In the community of people on invalidity benefit and employment support allowance, which comprises around 2.6 or 2.7 million people, it should be noted that 42 per cent entered the category for mental health reasons. There are estimates that very many of those people who go to IB without it end up with some mental problems because it is actually a rather depressing existence—depressing and worse being on IB. We are talking about well over half of that very substantial group of people affected by mental health. As the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, and Baroness, Lady Walmsley, said, when you use the word health it is not appreciated that mental health is encompassed in it. It is just not normally thought of immediately. This is a very simple amendment which is designed to reinforce a very important point which affects a large number of people who are directly in the category that a child poverty Bill is involved with.