Welfare Reform Bill

That is a very good point. Indeed, the Leader of the Opposition argued recently that there were 5 million people on benefits, each of whom was a potential Karen Matthews. That is the wrong argument, because it stigmatises people, and because the vast majority of people on benefits do want to get back into work. To match the changes that we are making to the conditionality regime for people who are sick and disabled, we will also invest more. We are spending £1 billion more on pathways to work between now and 2011, and we will also bring in the new changes recommended by David Freud—the invest to save model—so that people will be able to invest in helping people back into work and be paid back out of the benefit savings that they get. That will cover 20 per cent. of the country, and could lead to a radical change in the system—[Interruption.] Opposition Members ask when that will happen. It will be from 2011, and it will happen at exactly the pace that David Freud has recommended. The Conservatives like to pretend that this is some kind of magical piggybank, but if they know of people who want to invest in these projects now, and who will do so further and faster than we are doing, they should ask them to come forward. I would be very surprised if they can find people in the City who will do that. David Freud has said that this is the right pace at which to go. Indeed, the Conservatives used to say that they liked David Freud's proposals. That will be the right way forward for people who are sick and disabled. We also think that it will be the right way forward for workless parents. Workless parents already have to come in for interviews, but, if they do not want to carry out their action plan, they do not have to do so. We believe that the vast majority want to carry out their action plan, but it should be possible for an adviser to say to those who do not that it is now time for them to do so. That will reduce child poverty, and ensure that more people get back into work. The Conservatives are not prepared to give money to certain people. One of their main policies in this area is to increase tax credits, but not for lone parents. Another is to have a transferable married person's tax allowance, which would also not help single parents. They are not prepared to give more money to single parents; nor are they prepared to help them into work. They are prepared to stigmatise, but not to help people with money, or not to help them get into work. I hope that the right hon. Member for Maidenhead will change her policy on that and agree with the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Mr. Duncan Smith).