Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, I strongly support my noble friend’s amendment. It can be difficult for a young person to find a home. Let us take for example a typical group of young people from Centrepoint. A 17 year-old tells me that when she first moved out of home she moved into a bed and breakfast in Earl’s Court. There was no lock on her door, and a man in his 40s kept hanging around immediately outside it. An 18 year-old tells me that he was placed in a bed and breakfast after leaving custody. No support was offered and he soon found himself on the street. We are discussing over-21s now, yet when the Centrepoints, YMCAs and foyers cannot find move-on accommodation for their older young people then they cannot offer support to their younger ones. They are silted up, as the noble Lord, Lord Best, said. The YMCA states that it cannot find move-on accommodation for 35 per cent of its young people. I do not wish to patronise young people in their early twenties; three-quarters of those in employment share with other people. Some of those currently out of work will find it difficult to share. For many, that will be due to shortage of supply, while for others it will perhaps be due to a poor upbringing that leaves them ill equipped to co-operate with others. Of those who find a flat, many will have difficulty managing their money. The single room rent will exacerbate those problems; the young person’s tenancy may collapse, and they may be crushed by having failed in something in which they had so deeply invested themselves. Critically, the DWP’s own research report No. 243, Research into the Single Room Rent Regulations, published in 2005, highlighted: "““The restrictions that the SRR places on young claimants’ ability to access private rented housing is preventing many from finding any private rented sector accommodation within their means. This, combined with the widely reported reluctance of many landlords to let to young people, appears to have resulted in a situation where many young people enter informal lettings or end up using ‘friends’ floors’””." The noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, made that exact point at Second Reading and it has been made again this evening. We often do a poor job in this country of nurturing our children. The behaviour of some of them leaves our rate of child custody high above those of our neighbours. This February, we have the highest recorded number of children in custody of any February. I strongly support this amendment, which would also benefit young people in care whose exemption runs out at age 22. I am particularly keen to be reassured that the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Communities and Local Government are co-operating closely on enabling young people to gain a secure home base so that they can find and sustain work and become fully independent adults. Will the Minister consider meeting the noble Baroness, Lady Andrews, his opposite number from the Department for Communities and Local Government, soon to discuss this matter? Were it helpful, I am sure that my noble friend and I would be glad to attend such a meeting. I strongly support the amendment, and I hope that the Minister will accept it.