The government will seek to overturn seven defeats inflicted by the House of Lords to its Welfare Reform Bill later.
Ministers will urge the Commons to reject peers' amendments to the bill, including those to disability allowances proposed on Tuesday.
They will also rule out Labour calls to scrap a �26,000 benefits cap in favour of variable limits for different localities, calling them "unworkable".
Labour says the government needs to create jobs before cutting benefits.
Far-reaching changes to welfare entitlements are needed, ministers argue, to help people out of dependency on the state, increase incentives for work and make the benefits system fair to both claimants and taxpayers.
But campaigners say the proposals - which ministers also hope will save billions - risk pushing already vulnerable people into further hardship and distress.
MPs will decide on Wednesday whether to back amendments to the bill made during its passage through the Lords, or throw them out - re-introducing aspects of the proposed legislation rejected by peers.
Ministers, led by Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, say they intend to overturn the following measures agreed by the Lords:
- Excluding child benefit from the �26,000 cap on total benefits to households
- Not charging single parents to access child maintenance if they take reasonable steps to reach a settlement
- Exempting cancer patients from means-testing of employment support allowance
- Extending eligibility for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) prior to means-testing from one to two years
- Allowing young disabled people to continue claiming National Insurance contribution-based ESA
- Exempting social tenants with one spare room from "under-occupancy" penalties
The government suffered its latest defeat on Tuesday when a coalition of crossbench and Labour peers - supported by two Conservatives and seven Lib Dems - voted to limit proposed cuts to the lower rate of Disability Living Allowance for children.
A crossbench amendment tabled by Baroness Meacher calling for the lower rate to be at least two-thirds of the value of the higher rate - which ministers want to raise to �77 a week - was passed by 16 votes.
'Basic decency'Shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne MP said Labour was determined to force the government to change the bill.
"Welfare to work needs jobs - and this bill doesn't create a single one," he said.
"Instead it cuts support for people trying to do the right thing, like mums trying to go back to work and families trying to save, and quite frankly it crosses a line of basic British decency."
Ministers say the public backs the principle of not paying any household more in benefits than the average weekly wage of working families.
BBC political correspondent Carole Walker said Mr Duncan Smith would offer some transitional help, including aid for "vulnerable families" hit by the cap, to prevent children's education being disrupted.
Stand-offHe may also suggest a period of grace before the cap is imposed for some who have worked much of their lives.
"Some senior Lib Dem peers who've opposed the government's plans are ready to look closely at these proposals to see if they meet their concerns," our correspondent added.
Changes agreed by the Commons must return to the Lords for approval, raising the prospect of a stand-off between the two Houses on some issues. The process will continue until both Houses agree on the final text of the bill.
Anticipating this, Welfare Minister Lord Freud told peers on Tuesday "he did not think we have seen the last of the bill".
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/uk-politics-16825646
latest cnn world news latest world news 2011 latest world news bbc latest world news headlines list of world newspapers
No comments:
Post a Comment