Welfare Reform Bill

I did not want to embarrass the Government by telling them what JSA national insurance benefit is. Not even tripling it will prevent the people whom I mentioned from going back to work. Work is in their DNA—they will move from unemployment as soon as they can. There is no question of their hanging around. I am sure that amendments will be tabled on Report about putting fathers' names on birth certificates. The Secretary of State said that the scheme would not change, so nothing much will happen. However, I believe that we must devise some mechanism whereby children who want to find out the identity of both parents can trace them at some stage. Surely it is not impossible to ask for that information without a Chinese wall. Why do we assume that we must make males put their names on birth certificates? There are some males who wish to put their names on birth certificates and are prevented from doing so. On Report, I hope that the Government will provide a more flexible response. I shall end as I began, by saying that the Bill, which was drafted in an age of an ever-expanding job market, is no longer relevant in the economic hurricane that is beginning to affect our constituents. We shall need to reshape it radically if we are to serve the needs of our constituents. Sadly, I believe that, before it is even given Royal Assent, many more people in the country will be saying exactly the same thing.