Welfare Reform Bill

My hon. Friend makes an important point—one of many issues concerning people's civil liberties, right to privacy and right to decline treatment that they do not think is in their best interest. Those are profound matters. I have a feeling that the DWP is crashing around, with potentially disastrous consequences. The policy towards lone parents is a classic case of departmentalitis. The Department wants to get lone parents off the benefit roll. By excluding, first, lone parents with children above 11, then above seven, and now above three or even one, the Department achieves its departmental goals, but who else has to pick up the pieces when it has done so? When a lone parent with pre-school age children is coerced into employment to tick a box to satisfy a Government Department, how do we know what impact that has on the family and on the welfare of the children? What research evidence is there on the impact on families with very young children if lone parents who would not otherwise choose to be in paid work start working? [Interruption.] The Secretary of State says, ““We are not doing that,”” but the environment envisaged by the Bill is one of coercion and conditionality. He spoke about personalised conditionality. That was the jargon phrase that he used. My party has grave concerns about pressurising lone parents with young children into paid work when they would not otherwise choose to take up paid work.