Welfare Reform Bill

I am pleased to follow the hon. Member for Daventry (Mr. Boswell), with whom I enjoyed serving in Committee. Many of the points that have been raised hark back to those that were made at length in Committee. I want to speak against new clause 7. Despite the immense consensus in Committee, we are in serious danger of getting our legislative knickers in a twist. The new clause overdoes things and would achieve exactly the opposite of what we are trying to do, given that we all agree that the current system is inadequate to deal with the needs of those who are on incapacity benefit. As the hon. Member for Bury St. Edmunds (Mr. Ruffley) said, the majority of people on incapacity benefit want to go back to work. The Government are trying to facilitate exactly that in the Bill. They are doing that by establishing a support group and an employment group. The support group has that name because we are not trying to write off people on incapacity benefit who will receive employment support allowance. The support group will recognise and address the variety of different health needs, disabilities and fluctuating circumstances in which people find themselves. We also want to support people in the group not simply to remain in it for ever but to try to get work or engage in some sort of work-related activity. New clause 7 goes against the spirit of that and undermines everything that we are trying to achieve in creating the support group.