Child Poverty Bill
12:00 pm
Charlotte Pickles: I am not aware of that being in the costings. Although we are currently in a recession, we know that over the past decade there have been around 5.4 million people completely out of work and dependent on benefits in a boom time when jobs were available. Our point is that we are going to come out of the recession and there will be jobs available. At the moment we have a lot of people who are not necessarily British workers taking jobs. Removing some of the barriers and supporting people who perhaps have not been in work for a very long time, which is often the case, will not only provide better lives for those families, and indeed the children who live in such families, but be much better for Britain. Our costings are probably somewhat conservative in taking into account all the different savings that could accrue down the line—for instance, the benefit of having someone moving into work.