BRITISH MINISTERS are insisting they will push ahead with moves to limit welfare payments to £26,000 (€31,000) a year for each family, despite the latest rebellion by the House of Lords against legislation from the Conservative/Liberal Democrats coalition.
The House of Lords defeat on Monday was debated by the cabinet yesterday morning, but ministers are relaxed because of a series of opinion polls that show a public majority supports the move.
Even if the Lords’ rebellion was successful with support from Liberal Democrat peers, the party’s leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg made it clear the government would seek to overturn the vote when the legislation comes back to the House of Commons.
“It is fair to say you can’t receive more in benefits than if you were to earn £35,000 (€42,000) before tax,” said Mr Clegg, who saw his predecessor-in-office Paddy Ashdown revolt over the measure.
If implemented from April 2013, the benefits cap would cover all out-of-work payments, including jobseeker’s allowance, and employment and support allowance (ESA), but also child benefit.
Opponents, including many Church of England bishops, argue the legislation is deeply unfair, since it will mean that large families depending on welfare will be denied child benefit – a payment that is currently made to all families, regardless of income.
The latest opposition by the Lords – it is the 29th time during the life of this parliament that peers have overturned House of Commons’ measures – has led to new calls for reforms of the unelected body.
Currently Labour has the largest number of peers, with 239, though the Conservatives, with 219 and the Liberal Democrats, with 91 can usually maintain control, that is unless the 187 independent crossbenchers combine on an issue.
Labour’s performance in the Lords has become more disciplined since the May 2010 election, when many of its former ministers took up peerages.
However, the growing division among Liberal Democrat peers is a cause of worry for the government. On Monday, 39 voted with the government, 26 voted against, including Lord Ashdown, while 26 did not vote.
Party whips are concerned because MPs and peers who have rebelled once are more likely to do so again, particularly if leading lights such as Lord Ashdown are in the vanguard.
Two major pieces of legislation, the Legal Aid Bill and the Health and Social Care Bill, could now be in serious trouble in the Lords in the months ahead, particularly since many of the cross-bench peers are already exercised about both.
