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Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Best, and the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, made a very comprehensive case and I simply want to add one point in support. I go back to the very helpful research report published by the department, Perceptions of Welfare Reform and Universal Credit. I congratulate the department on conducting this research. What came out of that was that people very much welcomed the idea of a one-stop shop, although, of course, as we heard in the first sitting will not be one stop because council tax benefit will have to be claimed elsewhere. However, there was also concern that a single benefit may increase the risk to claimants if something goes wrong, either with the calculation or payment as all their eggs will be in one basket. I want to prefigure the discussions we will have on Clause 97 about joint payments. This has exacerbated the position of couples where all the money is to go to one partner and that partner may not be the person responsible for paying the rent or meeting the housing costs. It is another reason why we should support the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Best.