Welfare Reform Bill

I thank the hon. Lady for her intervention. All I would say in response is that 2.6 million people are still on incapacity benefit, 70 per cent. of whom started their claims under this Government. I refer her to the blog posted by her party colleague the hon. Member for Glasgow, South (Mr. Harris), who says:"““The scandal of incapacity benefit (IB) claim levels is one for which the government should take its share of the blame; IB culture has led not only to a huge expense on the public purse but also, more importantly, to an unacceptable waste of human talent and resource, and contributed significantly to the growth of the underclass.””" Let me move on to another area of concern. After so many years in which the Government have failed to produce welfare reform, many of their proposals remain unclear, unfinished and undecided. One example of that is the social fund. In November, the Government published a consultation on the social fund in which they proposed charging interest rates of up to 27 per cent. on loans to some of society's most vulnerable households. Unsurprisingly, these plans caused outcry, and the Government quickly backtracked, yet the Bill includes plans to press ahead with these reforms as set out in the consultation. Ministers have been saying that they have no intention of charging interest on these loans, but if that really is the case, why on earth does it not say so in the Bill, because this Bill leaves open the possibility that external providers will be able to charge interest on social fund loans?