Clause 2
Welfare Reform Bill
4:30 pm
Jim Murphy (Minister of State (Work), Department for Work and Pensions; East Renfrewshire, Labour)
In response to the brief points that have been fairly raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, North-West (John Robertson), as he said, the amendments refer to the rate of benefit and we said throughout the process—in the Green Paper and since—that all existing customers will have their rate of benefit protected and new customers will have a higher rate of benefit than the current long-term rate of incapacity benefit.
Amendment No. 180 would introduce benefit rates into the Bill, but the Government’s commitment is about protecting rates for existing claimants and putting future customers on a higher rate than the current long-term IB rate.
There was an important concession on benefit rates in the Green Paper. We had initially intended to set a youth rate in the main phase. Not unreasonably, representations from the TUC and others said that that would be the wrong thing to do, so we announced that we would not be introducing a youth rate in the main phase, which has been welcomed as an important concession.
Three different rates will remain in the assessment phase—