Welfare Reform Bill

The Welfare Reform Bill proposes sweeping changes to the British welfare system, including the introduction of a Universal Credit to replace Working Tax credit, Child Tax Credit, Housing Benefit, Income Support, income-based Job Seekers' Allowance and income-related Employment and Support Allowance.

The SFHA has produced a short briefing on the main points of the Bill.

UK Parliament - House of Commons

The Welfare Reform Bill had its second reading debate on 9th March 2011. It was scrutinised by the Welfare Reform Bill Committee between March - May 2011.

SFHA submitted written evidence to the Committee but we were not invited to either of the two oral evidence sessions held on 22nd and 24th of March. It appears that only English-based organisations were invited to address the oral sessions. However, the National Housing Federation gave its oral evidence on 24th March and we asked them to refer to our evidence if at all possible, which indeed they did.  View a replay of the NHF's evidence session here - fast forward to 3.15pm.

The Committee commenced its line by line scrutiny of the Bill on 29th March. All of the amendments lodged can be viewed here.

Clauses 1 - 4 were considered in the 5th Sitting of the Committee on the 29th March

Clauses 5 - 8 were considered in the 6th Sitting of the Committee on the 29th March

Clause 10 was considered in part in the 7th Sitting of the Committee on the 31st March

Debate on clause 10 was completed and clause 11 commenced in the 8th Sitting of the Committee on the 31st March

Clause 11 contains the provisions for the housing costs element of the new Universal Credit.  Five amendments were lodged for clause 11 and four were debated on 31st March.  The remaining one, on direct payments to landlords, was debated (albeit briefly) on 5th April (9th Sitting) as were clauses 12 & 13. We briefed Scottish MPs on the Committee on clause 11, which was cited by Sheila Gilmore during the debate. See our separate Briefing on Clause 11 for more detail.

The Committee reconvened on 26th April, following the Easter recess.

Debate on clauses 14-25 was completed and clause 26 commenced in the 10th Sitting on 5th April.

Clauses 26-31were debated in the 11th and 12th Sittings on 26th April.

Clauses 32-37 were debated in the 13th Sitting on 28th April.

Clauses 38-49 were debated in the 14th Sitting on 28th April.

Debate on clauses 50-59 and clause 60 commenced in the 15th Sitting on 3rd May.

Clauses 60-74 were debated in the 16th Sitting on 3rd May. Clause 68 contains the provisions which will permit the link to be broken between the amount of Housing Benefit paid and the actual rent for which the tenant is liable.  We know that this will be used to introduce the under occupation penalty for Hosuing Benefit.  SFHA briefed the Scottish MPs on the Committee prior to clause 68 being debated. Several amendments were lodged by Labour seeking mitigate the impact of this provision but the clause remains unamended for the time being.

Clauses 77 and 78 (in part) were debated in the 17th Sitting on 10^th May.

Clauses 78 (remainder) to 84 were debated in the 18^th Sitting on 10^th May.

Clauses 84- 90 were debated on 19^th Sitting on 12^th May.

Clauses 91-92 were debated on 20^th Sitting on 12^th May.

The Bill Committee concluded its deliberations on 24th May.

The Committee Report Stage was held over two days on 13th and 15th June:

First Sitting of Report Stage

Second Sitting of Report Stage

SFHA briefed Scottish MPs ahead of the Report Stage on the housing related implications of the Bill. Download a copy of the Committee Report here.

The Third Reading took place immediately following the conclusion of the Report Stage on 15th June:

Third Reading

SFHA briefed the Scottish MPs ahead of the Report Stage on the housing-related implications. Download a copy of the Committee Report here.

UK Parliament - House of Lords

The Bill's First Reading in the House of Lords took place on 16th June. The Bill's Second Reading in the House of Lords took place on 19th July 2011, where SFHA continued to lobby on the housing related issues.

The Bill has completed its scrutiny in the Grand Committee, which began on 4th October. In the lead up to Grand Committee, SFHA liaised closely with its sister Federations and other bodies to agree appropriate amendments and secure the backing of specific Lords to table them. All of these amendments were incorporated in a Joint Briefing sent to all Lords ahead of 4th October.

The Bill entered the House of Lords Report Stage on 12th December (see Report: 1st sitting: House of Lords 12 December, 2011).

In the Report Stage sitting on 14th December - see Report: 2nd sitting: House of Lords 14 December, 2011 - there was a robust debate around an amendment from Lord Best seeking to minimise the impact of the under occupation penalty.  The SFHA and its sister federations, supported by a large number of other like-minded organisations throughout the UK, sent a joint letter to every Lord seeking support for Lord Best's amendment. We also emailed our own letter to a target list of Scottish lords. Lord Best pushed his amendment to a vote and it was carried by 258 to 190 votes. This represented a landmark victory for everyone concerned about the potential impact of this penalty.  It also signalled the first of seven significant Lords amendment defeats for the Government on various aspects of the Bill, which variously offered some hope to those of us lobbying for a fairer set of welfare reforms. In the same sitting, the Lords also debated an amendment from Lord Best on direct payment of housing costs to landlords. Following a reassurance from Lord Freud that he was concerned not to undermine the housing sector in the ongoing discussions about the payment of housing costs, Lord Best withdrew the amendment. SFHA remains sceptical that our concerns about this issue will be addressed in the forthcoming secondary legislation. A transcipt of the 14th December sitting can be viewed here.

After the Christmas recess, the House of Lords held four further sessions of the Report Stage to consider the Bill in detail:

Report: 3rd sitting: House of Lords 11 January, 2012

Report: 4th sitting: House of Lords 17 January, 2012

Report: 5th sitting: House of Lords 23 January, 2012

Report: 6th sitting: House of Lords 25 January, 2012

The Report Stage of the Bill made the headlines for a number of reasons. However, as we always expected, this and other amendments were all overturned when the Bill returned to the House of Commons after its Third Reading in the Lords on 31st January 2012.

3rd reading: House of Lords 31 January, 2012

After this point, the Bill entered into what is known as the "Ping Pong" phase of the legislative process, where the Commons and the Lords are in disagreement about the shape of legislation and bat in back and forth until an agreed Bill can be finalised.

You may have heard at the time that rather controversially the House of Commons cited 'financial privilege' as the reason for rejecting the Lords' amendments. (You can read an explanatory note on what financial privilege means here: House of Commons Financial Privilege). Having cited financial privilege, when the Bill returned to the Lords on 14th February, it then became necessary for Lord Best to propose an 'amendment in lieu' to the underoccupancy penalty (or Bedroom Tax, as it has become known) which still seeks to take some groups of people out of the penalty (namely war widows, foster carers and disabled people), but is not the same form of amendment as had been voted through back in December. This 'amendment in lieu' was voted through in the House of Lords by 236 to 226 votes. You can read the record of the Ping Pong in the House of Lords on 14th February 2012 here.When the Bill returned to the Commons on 21st February, the Government again defeated the Lords’ amendment - you can read the record here Ping Pong in House of Commons on 21st February 2012.

At the time of writing, we are not anticipating any further ‘Ping Pong’ on this issue, although a Lords session is scheduled for 29th February. Our understanding is that we can now expect the Bill to be sent for Royal Assent in early March.

Full details of this Bill and all related documents can be found on the House of Commons and House of Lords website.

We have recently received via the Scottish Government a set of Illustrative Draft Regs on housing costs element of Universal Credit , issued by the DWP to inform the House of Lords scrutiny of the Bill.

Scottish Parliament

The Bill is also being scrutinised in the Scottish Parliament, which is required to discuss whether it consents to the provisions in the Bill which fall within its competence. The Health and Sport Committee has been designated as the lead committee for scrutising the legislative consent memorandum on the Bill. The Local Government and Regeneration Committee and the Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee have been designated as secondary committees.

The Scottish Government lodged its first Legislative Consent Memorandum (LCM) on the Bill in February 2011, followed by a supplementary Legislative Consent Memorandum in October 2011. The supplementary LCM outlines the five areas of the Bill that would require consent from the Scottish Parliament.  It is important to note that, should the Scottish Parliament decide not to give its consent, this would not prevent the Bill from completing its passage at Westminster and receiving Royal Assent.

SFHA gave oral evidence to the Infrastructure and Capital Investment (ICI) Committee on 26th October 2011 and we submitted written evidence shortly thereafter to the ICI and Health & Sport Committees.  The Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee has reported its findings to the lead committee, who in turn published its Report on the Legislative Consent Memorandum on 8th December 2011.  Both committees listened to our concerns and to those of like-minded organisations.

In its report, the lead committee:

• acknowledges that many of the concerns about Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payments arise from lack of detailed information but, nevertheless, believes that they cannot simply be ignored
• notes that an alternative to giving consent in relation to Universal Credit and personal Independence Payments would be for the Scottish Government to introduce a Bill to the Scottish Parliament.  This would give the Scottish Parliament time to consider more fully the implications of the forthcoming welfare reforms and the appropriate Scottish policy response to them
• noted their uncertainty whether such a Scottish Bill could be drafted, scrutinised and passed by the Parliament in sufficient time to ensure that the Scottish statute book reflects the changes introduced by the Welfare Reform Billl prior to their implementation.
• invites the Scottish Government to consider whether this is a practical alternative to allowing the UK Parliament to legislate on behalf of Scotland in these areas and to report its view to the Parliament.
  

The ICI Committee's report to the lead committee is contained in Annexe E of the main report.  SFHA's evidence is quoted extensively within this.

The ICI Committee:

• supports any flexibility in the underoccupation penalty that would avoid tenants being penalised through no fault of their own;
• considers that direct payment to claimants of housing costs could be offered in certain circumstances but flexibility both to protect certain groups of tenants and avoid disruption to income streams of landlords is essential
• is of the view that the current system of direct payments of Housing Benefit to social landlords works and is to the benefit of tenants and landlords - consideration should therefore be given to its retention
• highlights that the Bill will potentially impact on a Scottish legislative commitment under the Homelessness etc. (Scotland) Act 2003
• considers that there should be close levels of engagement between the Scottish Government and the DWP at both ministerial and official level, particularly in relation to the development of the detailed implementation of the reforms prior to being set out in future regualtions
• considers it imperative that adequate mechanisms are put in place by the DWP to ensure that the Scottish Government, the Scottish Parliament and relevant stakeholders are fully consulted on relevant regulations before they are finalised and laid before the Westminster Parliament.  The majority of the Committee was in favour of establishing an ad hoc committee to look at the regualtions and how they will affect devolved policy areas.

The Scottish Government laid a Legislative Consent Motion (LCM) on the Welfare Reform Bill on 21st December 2011. The LCM was debated on 22nd December 2011. SFHA briefed all MSPs ahead of the debate. In an historic move, MSPs voted not to give legislative consent to the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment elements of the Bill but rather to bring forward primary legislation in the Scottish Parliament to address the implementation of both in a Scottish context.  For more details, read SFHA's 23rd December Briefing.

On 25th January 2012, the Scottish Parliament announced the establishment of the Scottish Parliament Welfare Reform Committee. The committee's role will be to keep the passage of the UK Welfare Reform Bill under review and monitor its implementation as it affects welfare provision in Scotland and to consider relevant Scottish legislation and other consequential arrangements. SFHA has welcomed the creation of this committee and we will be looking to provide advice and assistance to the Committee in the coming weeks and months ahead. The Committee's first meeting was held  on 23rd February when it appointed a Convenor and agreed its initial work programme.

What Can You Do?

We would be interested in receiving case examples of the impact these proposals will have, to help us in lobbying for the best outcome for our members.  Please send these to David Ogilvie, who is the SFHA lead on this piece of legislation.