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Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, I sought to intervene earlier and I shall do so only briefly in a way that the Minister might find more helpful than some of my interventions. I had rather looked forward to saying that 24 hours is a long time in politics; you make one speech in favour of the Government and you are allowed out on licence. I am not going to use that licence, though. I will not disguise the fact that I have a lot of sympathy with the sort of situation described by the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, and recognised by others, not least the position of young carers, to which we have not given enough attention over the years. I hope that the Minister will listen sympathetically to the cause that is being advanced, but from experience I have to say—this is where I am going to be more helpful than some people might have liked—I am not sure that such things can be dealt with through a universal provision because the circumstances vary so much from household to household and from case to case. It may be that these rates and the definitions of who gets what rate are wrong, but there is an awful lot in this, including cases like the one cited by the noble Lord, that need a different and more specific kind of attention and require help to be provided in another way than can be provided under a universal, broadly defined benefit. I thought I ought to say that before the Minister got to his feet.