HL Deb 14 November 1983 vol 444 cc1073-4

3.52 p.m.

Second Reading debate resumed.

Lord Campbell of Alloway

My Lords, I share, of course, the moving and eloquent concern of the noble Lord, Lord Molloy, for the unemployed, and the mounting cost of the search for work. But this Bill is ill-fated. It is open to objection in principle. It is unworkable in practice. This is not only because it imposes an unreasonable burden of administration on local authorities generally, even if acceptable in Manchester, but also because it is fraught with confusion. For the tacking process to Section 138 of the Act confuses the concept of grant with that of concession; the status of unemployment with that of the elderly, blind and disabled; and the limited purposes of a grant to travel in search of a job with the general purpose of unlimited travel.

Surely, it is difficult to envisage how such objections in principle could dissolve at Committee stage. There is an MSC grant available to those unemployed in receipt of supplementary benefit to enable them to travel in search of a job. If this was to be extended to those in receipt of ordinary benefit, surely the point of principle which the noble Lord, Lord Molloy, contends, could be met, because, adverting carefully to his speech at the point where he dealt with the "hole in the pocket" observations, it seemed to me that that might have been the main gravamen of his complaint arid, if not. that this might go some way to meet his sincere and genuine concern.

One would assume that since 11th March my noble friend the Minister may have considered this suggestion and has no doubt received some advice as to the extra cost involved both in terms of the extended grant and in terms of the extra costs of administration. It would surely be most interesting to hear, when my noble friend the Minister replies, if he has any proposals in this regard—proposals that, in the event, might well tend to render, in due course, further consideration of this Bill unnecessary. In conclusion, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Molloy, for affording your Lordships' House yet another occasion when this important question of this MSC grant may be raised and discussed.