Victory for the government

THE government won the day yesterday, overturning all the amendments sent back to the Commons to the Welfare Bill from the Lords.

The key amendment from the Lords was that put down by the Church of England bishops to exclude child related benefits from an overall cap of £26,000.

The Lords wanted to drop proposals to cut disability living allowance payments by up to £1,400 a year for about 100,000 children.

They also wanted to drop the proposal to charge single parents for using the Child Support Agency.

Other amendments would have exempted cancer patients from the contributory Employment Support Allowance (ESA) limit of one year, raise to 24 months the proposed 12-month limit on claiming contributory ESA and allow disabled young people to receive the benefit.