The following amendment has now been tabled by Professor Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, immediate past President of the Royal Society of Medicine, a cross bench Peer.  We are working hard to persuade other Peers to add their names – any help would be welcome. The Committee stage of the Bill in the Lords begins on the 19th January. 

After Clause 15 – Economic and Fiscal Circumstances. 
Insert the following new clause:
"Duty to have regard to the combined low income and material deprivation target.
The Secretary of State must have regard to
A) the combined low income and material deprivation target specified in section 3 and
B) research estimating the minimum weekly costs of a healthy diet, fuel,clothes, transport and other necessities required to eradicate material deprivation of children and their parents when setting the level of unemploymeny benefits and national minimum wage."

The Bill is deficient in that it requires government to identify the numbers of children who live in households “that cannot afford a range of basic activities” or “basic material goods” but has no requirement on government to have regard to research which will show the minimum weekly income for a variety of households which will provide the items and goods of which they are deprived and so end their income poverty.  

Regulations made under Clause 6. The definition of ‘material deprivation’ is likely to be that set out in the Explanatory Notes, namely: 

“Children are materially deprived if they live in households that cannot afford a range of basic activities, such as such as school trips for the children, or celebrations on special occasions, or if they cannot afford basic material goods, such as fuel to keep their home warm. A child experiencing material deprivation may therefore lack many of the experiences and opportunities that other children take for granted, and can be exposed to severe hardship and social exclusion.” 

When Steve Webb MP (Lib Dem) put his name to the amendment tabled by Graham Stuart MP (Cons)  in the House of Commons. He said the following in the debate; 

“When we heard evidence, it was pointed out that a young woman under 25 is allocated £50.95 a week to live on, but evidence suggests that £43 a week is needed for food for a decent, healthy living standard. Fuel and other bills cannot be paid from the remaining £7-odd, so young women in that age group who are on benefit are, by definition, eating less than is healthy for them. If they then become pregnant, they will at that time have been eating unhealthily. Budget standards and minimum income standards would enable us to consider what such young women need for a decent standard of living, and to make that the benchmark. Fiscal considerations would determine whether we hit the benchmark, but not knowing what the benchmark is unacceptable and inexcusable.”

The increased risks of mental illness for children of women experiencing poor maternal nutrition before, during pregnancy and after birth have been highlighted by the research of the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition with the support of the WHO and MRC; and by Lord Hameed and Lord Rea in a short debate in the House of Lords. 

All the hard work of encouragement by the advisors managing the government’s pathways to work interviews is undone by the profound discouragement of the rules and mistakes of the welfare system. So the State severely multiplies the many  words of discouragement heard by welfare children. The harsh regime is based on the assumption that all welfare recipients suffer from the moral hazard that they will not seek work.

If an adult, even and pregnant woman,  misses  one interview with an adviser then welfare income is stopped, threats of eviction for rent and bailiffs for council tax arrears follow. Incomprehensible repayment of thousands of pounds of tax credit overpayments is demanded. Our cases histories show that depression, even suicide, as a result of the State’s punitive approach to welfare are all too common.  

The Government’s  Office for Science has  established a link between debt and mental illness. None of the many government departments delivering welfare has paid the slightest attention to this substantial contribution to identifying the causes of the unhappiness of children in the UK; we are a disgraceful bottom of the European league table.