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Welfare Reform Bill

I will give way in a moment. My final point is about the small question of whether the Bill will actually save any money in and of itself. The Bill would save money if it got people back to work, but it will not create a single job. By the time we get to Royal Assent, there will still be five people chasing every job in this country, and for every 120 of us, there will still be 10 people chasing every job. The only way that this Government are going to save money through welfare reform is by cutting the benefits of working families. Indeed, once we take out the shift to a lower form of uprating, we see that half the benefit cuts hit working families, starting with 10 raids on the family budget, taking out £1.5 billion from this April. Two thirds of that bill would not be necessary if unemployment was not as high—in fact, if it was down at the level at which it would have been under Labour. Nowhere is that muddle on whether the Bill saves money more confusing than when it comes to the housing measures.