Ministers put kibosh on Lords' welfare amendments

MPs in the House of Commons yesterday (1 February) overturned a total of seven defeats inflicted on the government’s Welfare Reform Bill in the Lords, including plans to cap total household benefits to £26,000 a year.

Ministers will use the rule of "financial privilege", based on a resolution from 1671, to ensure the bill passes through parliament.

It will mean Lords cannot send the same amendments back to the Commons when they debate the bill for the final time.

Clauses overturned by MPs included excluding child benefit from the overall benefit cap, not charging single parents for use of the Child Support Agency if they've taken steps to reach a settlement and allowing young disabled people who have never worked to keep claiming "contributory" employment and support allowance.

Moves to retain the bill in its current form have been roundly criticised by children’s groups.

Enver Solomon, policy director at The Children’s Society, said: "The government has today made life more difficult for some of the poorest and most vulnerable children in the country.

"The Children’s Society recognises the benefit cap grace period, additional hardship funds and the exemption of some employment support allowance claimants are genuine concessions. But this does not go far enough to reduce the disproportionate impact of this policy on the most disadvantaged children.

"The vote to include child benefit when calculating the benefit cap means that more than 220,000 children have an uncertain future as they and their families will struggle to pay for fuel bills, basic essentials or, in some cases, the roof over their heads.

"It is particularly disheartening that the government has voted through cuts of up to £1,400 a year for as many as 100,000 disabled children.

"This will have a significant impact on day-to-day living for families with disabled children, including buying essentials like food and clothes."

Srabani Sen, chief executive of Contact a Family, said her organisation is writing to MPs and is urging families to do the same.

"It's important that we highlight the devastating effect these changes are going to have and keep up the pressure," she said.

"Plans to halve disability additions for all but the most severely disabled children as well as reforms of tax credits, council tax and housing benefit will have a devastating cumulative effect which will lead to existing and future generations of disabled children and their parent carers being consigned to the poverty trap."