Clause 7
Welfare Reform Bill
5:15 pm
Tony McNulty (Minister of State (Employment and Welfare Reform; Minister for London), Department for Work and Pensions; Harrow East, Labour)
In the strictest sense, there will not be a replacement benefit. What we are trying to do for carers in the way that I described earlier is to look radically at the whole approach to supporting them, including with regard to benefits, across the whole of the Government including, crucially, on social care.
I shall not give the hon. Gentleman an assurance about proper scrutiny without his defining what “proper” means in that context. At the very least, there will be plenty of scope for scrutiny through the Social Security Advisory Commission, at the least through the negative procedure, and potentially through the affirmative procedure. I am sure that there will be other times and opportunities when we will report in more detail for such scrutiny. As has been suggested, the importance of the role of carers in this country is far too important for the situation to be otherwise.