Welfare Reform Bill

The Government’s aim in our welfare reforms is to reduce dependency on benefits by providing customers with the support they need to engage in work. These amendments would prevent regulations from imposing a requirement to take part in a work-focused health-related assessment or a work-focused interview on any customer during the assessment phase. This would mean that participation in the planned work-focused interview at week eight and the work-focused health-related assessment during the first 13 weeks of a claim would be voluntary and that no sanction could apply for a failure to take part without good cause. We know that the longer a person is out of work, the more they lack the confidence and perhaps also the skills to enter or return to work. Although we know that many people expect and want to return to work when they first make a claim for an incapacity benefit, without the right support very few will take active steps to return to the labour market. That is why we want to ensure their engagement in the early stages of their claim so that the support that customers need can be made available to them. We believe, therefore, that it is appropriate for customers to take part in a work-focused health-related assessment while they are still in the assessment phase so that any identified interventions can be implemented as soon as possible—a point we debated earlier. We also believe that the work-focused health-related assessment will in itself benefit customers, giving them the opportunity to explore, with a trained healthcare professional, their perspective of their disabling condition and the barriers it is creating for them in relation to work. We know from the experience of the Pathways to Work pilots that many customers are unaware of the support available. On this basis the proposed reforms will be fully effective only if customers are required to take part in a work-focused interview during the assessment phase, enabling them to speak to their personal adviser about the options open to them. Let me reassure noble Lords that we will not require any person who is considered to meet the criteria for the support group to take part in a work-focused health-related assessment unless they volunteer to do so. The requirement to take part in a work-focused interview may be deferred if an interview at that time would not be of assistance to the customer or appropriate in the circumstances. If accepted, these amendments would send entirely the wrong message to customers at the outset if we were to agree that during the assessment phase, work-focused health-related assessments and work-focused interviews were to be voluntary. That would imply that the first invitation to an assessment and first interview between the customer and the personal adviser are less important than later interventions and that it is not essential to engage at the earliest opportunity. It could also make the benefit more confusing for customers if some interventions are mandatory and some are not. We feel that this would seriously weaken the concept of rights and responsibilities that underpins the Government’s approach to this legislation. I want to stress the point made about whether people who end up in a support group have to attend a work-focused health-related assessment. As we said previously, we are confident that the majority of people entitled to be in the support group will be identified on the basis of paper evidence without it being necessary to call for a face-to-face assessment. For those few customers who might slip through the net, we are confident that the healthcare professional carrying out the PCA will identify that they meet one of the support group criteria. If that is the case, any requirement to take part in the work-focused health-related assessment will be deferred until the decision-maker has determined whether or not that person should be in the support group. On the issue of sanctions being imposed during the assessment phase, I should make it clear that sanctions will not be imposed until after that phase. However, it certainly could be the case that sanctions may be imposed on people who are not in the support group and fail to turn up at a work-focused interview during the assessment phase. However, the monetary impact of those sanctions would not kick in until after the assessment phase, so it is not until people are in receipt of the higher rate which includes the work-related activity component that the sanctions would be brought to bear. I hope that that makes the position clear. We also debated earlier a point raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, concerning a person who ends up in the support group but who nevertheless is called for the first work-focused interview. That could happen to some customers, but if there was a failure to participate in the interview, it would not be sanctionable. I hope that my remarks have dealt with the points made by the noble Lord. The monetary impact of sanctions cannot bite until after the assessment phase, and in some instances that phase may stretch beyond 13 weeks if the process has not finished. However, in some circumstances, actions or inactions within the assessment phase could be the trigger which causes the sanctions to bite—but only after the end of the assessment phase. I hope that I have clarified the matter and I urge the noble Lord to withdraw his amendment.