National Housing Federation chief David Orr has produced the most succinct and compelling short rebuttal of the so-called 'bed tax' in the government's deeply flawed Welfare Reform Bill.

MPs in the Westminster House of Commons are debating the Welfare Reform Bill from 12.30pm on Wednesday 1 February 2012, one day after the House of Lords final debate. There are vital issues at stake for disabled people, including the young disabled and those with cancer, for people on housing benefit, for lone parents, vulnerable women and larger families.

The excellent Joint Public Issues Team shared jointly by the Methodist Church, the United Reformed Church and the Baptist Union of Great Britain has produced a very good guide to why a generic benefit cap is a bad idea for people living at the sharp end of austerity.

A series of further amendments to the Welfare Reform Bill are being discussed at the end of the WRB report stage in the House of Lords today.

The two key amendments are as follows:

62BJ

Since early this morning there has been a furious battle to establish proper fact and true value in the argument over the government's proposed welfare benefit cap. As I write (17:30, 23 January 2012) it has just won the first vote in the House of Lords, but the arguments have been going the other way.

Talk about last minute.

Patrick Butler, Society Editor at the Guardian, has done a splendid job in providing rolling coverage of the report stage debates in the House of Lords on the Welfare Reform Bill. He is again coordinating a live blog today (17 January 2012).

Writing in The Guardian, Declan Gaffney, former policy advisor to the previous Mayor of London and to the previous government, has written in a personal capacity about what is at stake in the continuing struggle over disabled rights and the Welfare Reform Bill.

Poverty and Homelessness Action Week will soon be upon us (28 Jan - 5 Feb) and as part of it there is a really worthwhile event taking place at Union Chapel in Islington.

"One of the most fascinating things about the government's wobble on welfare this week has been the critical role of a new breed of disability campaigner in successfully marshalling public and political opposition to the reforms." writes Patrick Butler, Head of Society, Health and Education at the Guardian, today.