Clause 4 - Statutory adoption pay
Employment Bill
5:45 pm
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. He is making a good defensive case, saying, ''Look, it is 100 quid, and that is better than nothing.'' I agree that it may be better than nothing for some people, but for those who earn above a certain level and do not have the wherewithal to forgo their regular earnings it will be effectively the same as nothing, because they will not be able to claim it. The charge from these Benches to the Government is, ''If you want to talk the talk, walk the walk.'' During the
past few sittings of the Committee, the Minister has given the impression that the Government are extending to adoptive parents the full of range of benefits that is available to natural parents. Now he is being asked to face up to the fact that their proposals, which are outside the Bill, fall substantially short of that in a way in which will make a material difference to many adoptive parents.
Will the Minister answer my earlier question about expected take-up?