Lone Parent Employment

: The hon. Gentleman is seductive. He tempts me, but I shall follow only to the extent of saying that the age is a relevant consideration that should at least be re-examined. It is for anyone to make a principled case for keeping the limit as it is. One of the dangers of adopting any rigid policy is that there may have to be exceptions for some cases. We should all reflect on that. It is easy to produce a new formula and say that the limit will be the beginning of secondary school or primary school, but then fall flat on our face when somebody comes along with a perfectly sensible set of family circumstances that preclude following that formula. It has always been difficult to disentangle cause and effect. As I said, the present Government are past masters of attributing improvement in the participation of lone parents in the labour market to the new deal programme, yet we know that there was a sort of deadweight, in that unemployment was falling anyway because of wider economic factors. The relevance of that to the present circumstances has been touched on in the debate: the Government must be concerned—I certainly am—about the growth in the unemployment claimant count in the past 12 months, particularly the sharp rise in youth unemployment, which, for the purpose of our debate, is extremely relevant. Such a rise could have two malign effects: the direct effect could be to drive up demand for marginal employees; and, in terms of labour market action, the effect could be to put further strain on the Government's employment services at a time when the Department has to hold back resources to support continuing problems at the Child Support Agency. The Department also has to deal with the Jobcentre Plus customer relationship management problems, which have been mentioned, and fulfil Gershon efficiency and head count targets. All of that could mean that some of the extra public activities that are foreshadowed in the welfare reform Green Paper and which the Minister spoke about today could amount to mere pie in the sky. Even if they did come to fruition, any benefits that they offer could be negated by problems in the labour market. It is no good introducing people to the labour market if the labour market is shrinking and is no longer prepared to absorb them.