Peers inflict second government defeat on disability benefit cuts

The government has been defeated in the House of Lords for a second time over plans to cut some disabled people's benefits by £30 a week.

Peers voted by 286 to 219 to delay the cuts, pending an assessment of the impact on claimants.

In January the Lords voted to remove the cuts from the Welfare Reform Bill altogether, but they were later reinstated by MPs in a Commons vote.

Ministers may try to overturn the fresh defeat at a later date.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: "The vote in the House of Lords is a routine part of the legislative process and next steps will be announced in due course."

This stage in a bill's journey is known as "parliamentary ping pong", when legislation is batted between the two Houses until agreement is reached on its contents.

The government wants to cut Employment Support Allowance by £30 a week to encourage some new claimants to return to work.

In a bid to stave off another defeat over the plans, Work and Pensions Minister Lord Freud offered several concessions and warned peers against supporting the "wrecking amendment" which he said "undermines conventional parliamentary process".

But crossbench peer Lord Low - who put forward the successful amendment - said the cut in support to disability benefit claimants was "drastic" - and the concessions were "just not enough".

He said the government had not been able to provide evidence for its argument that the cuts "incentivised" people back to work and insisted his "moderate" amendment would give ministers time to justify the policy.

The decision by peers to inflict defeat on the government sets up another showdown between the Commons and the Lords, coming not long after last year's clash over tax credits, which led to moves by ministers to limit the powers of the Lords.