Bid to reverse welfare defeats

The Government will move to overturn seven defeats on its welfare reforms including a bishops' amendment to change a planned £26,000 cap on benefits.

The controversial Welfare Bill is being returned to MPs after peers went through the Government's plan line by line.

The most prominent showdowns came over the Government's £26,000-a-year benefits cap and plans to charge parents to access the Child Support Agency. A bishops' amendment, backed byLabour peers, seeks to take child benefit out of the cap.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman said: "We have been very clear where we stand. The Lords' amendments will be overturned when the Bill comes back to the Commons."

Once MPs have finished considering the amendments the Bill will be returned to the Lords in a bid to agree a final text. The Bill could pass between each House several times in a process known as parliamentary 'ping-pong' as MPs and peers fight over the correct wording of the new law.

The Government's welfare reforms have
suffered a seventh defeat in the House of Lords

Speaking after the Welfare Bill cleared the Lords, welfare reform minister Lord Freud said: "I don't think we have seen the last of this Bill."

The Government suffered its seventh reverse in the Lords on Tuesday night over plans from crossbench peer Baroness Meacher to limit cuts to top-up payments made to the parents of disabled children.

The Government wants to introduce a slight increase to the weekly rate for the most disabled children, taking it to £77, while halving the lower rate to £27. Ministers argue the money saved will be spent on providing additional support to the most disabled adults.

Lady Meacher said the Government's plans would mean families with a child on the lower rate losing £1,400 a year.

Liam Byrne, Labour's shadow work and pensions secretary, responding to the latest Government defeat, said: "Once again the Government tried to cross the line of decency, kicking away help from children with disabilities, and once again the Lords have stopped them."

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