There may some ingenious halfway house solution. But it is hard to say how extending it for another year can be avoided.
Until Ministers have a clear direction in which to steer the ship of anti-poverty policy, they will be at the mercy of the passengers.
The first report of a new commission finds that disparities are just as apparent within regions, cities and towns as they are between them.
The next step is for a commission to be established that can develop solutions to the current inequalities we have seen.
We are allowing others to create a narrative for us, and in the absence of an agreed poverty measure and subsequent strategy, we always will.