Welfare Reform Bill

If I understand the comment correctly, I think the hon. Gentleman was suggesting that disabled people out of work are less likely to—[Interruption.] Oh, I thought that the hon. Gentleman was saying the opposite, which is why I was expressing a slight surprise. One of the key reasons why so many disabled people live in poverty is, as we all know, that only 50 per cent. of working age disabled people are actually in work. If we consider people with mental health problems or learning disabilities, we are down to less than 20 per cent. It must be right to take measures to help disabled people to secure better employment opportunities. That is partly what the new deal, Jobcentre Plus, pathways to work and, of course, a decent national minimum wage were all about. They were about providing employment opportunities to enable people to get out of poverty. I should add that for those who are unable to secure employment—here I agree with my right hon. Friend the Member for Birkenhead (Mr. Field)—social security benefits are simply too low. There is no third way for most people: if they do not have a job, they rely on benefits, and benefits in this country are too low. The TUC and others are absolutely right to say so. To return to the employment front, 10 per cent. more disabled people are in work today than there were 10 years ago, which is significant. For some, progress has been painfully slow, but there has been a significant overall improvement in employment opportunities. Those who have had the most difficulty securing employment are probably those with mental health problems. About half of people on incapacity benefit have a primary diagnosis of a mental health problem and if we add those with a secondary diagnosis, it is even more. Such people with mental health problems need the kind of personalised support envisaged in the Bill, which has been piloted for some time. The provision of such personalised support is one reason why I support the Bill. The vision of specialist personalised support is crucial. Part 2, which relates to giving disabled people greater choice and control over the services provided to them, provides another crucial ingredient of support—the so-called ““right to control””. The problem, of course, is that services are currently fragmented beyond measure. Some people in the House know this better than I do from their personal experience, but countless assessments—well, not countless, but people could easily have six or seven of them—different eligibility criteria, the Employment Service, social care and health care do not offer a good example of joined-up service provision. In fact, they provide a terrible example because they are not joined up at all. I thus strongly support the Bill's identification of the need for disabled people to have right of control in the sense of bringing those services together. When the noble Lord Ashley put forward his Independent Living Bill in the other place, he envisaged one gateway and one budget over which disabled people could exercise control, thus eradicating the problem that arises when people have to negotiate such a fragmented range of services. In that context, I am disappointed that although the Bill talks about the ““right to control””—and the Government have used the phrase quite a lot in respect of it—it specifically excludes services relating to social care and health. I find that strange. If we are to talk seriously about the right to control, it must embrace within that framework not just employment-related services, but social care, health and other services. I would like a clear statement from the Minister this evening that the Government intend to legislate for right to control in respect of social care and health care, as well as for employment-related services. As I have argued in previous debates, fragmentation is evident not just in different kinds of service provision; the classic problem remains that someone who has a health care package in one local authority but wants to work in the next door authority has to take the risk of abandoning the current care support package and then spend considerable time renegotiating a new package with the neighbouring local authority. If the right to control is to be more than rhetoric—if it is to be an essential part of enabling disabled people to secure decent employment opportunities—it must include the right to move from A to B to obtain work. Our present social care system blocks that. I hope that the Minister who winds up will confirm, very simply, that ““right to control”” means that the Government will scrap the lack of portable support, and get rid of the present ridiculous system whereby people cannot take their care packages from one local authority to another. Welfare reform plainly requires a major expansion of employment services. I welcome the news that funding for Access to Work is to be doubled by 2013, but I confess that because of the modest amount involved, and because every £1 million spent between £1.7 million and £1.9 million is returned to the Treasury, I still do not understand why it is necessary to wait until 2013 for that to happen. It seems to me that the Government's aspirations are very modest. What is needed, I feel, is a massive awareness campaign to inform the many employers who do not know about Access to Work—and, perhaps, even disabled people who do not know how wonderful Access to Work can be—that it is available. I strongly support the statements made by three Members about the barrier to work, and to other aspects of life, that affects blind people. It is nonsensical that blind people cannot access the higher mobility rate of disability living allowance. What is the distinction between someone who physically cannot move around unaided and someone who is unable to move around safely owing to sight loss? In both cases, the outcome is exactly the same. I know that the Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the hon. Member for Chatham and Aylesford (Jonathan Shaw)—who is present, and who is Minister for disabled people—is very sympathetic to that argument, because I have heard him advance it. I note that the Secretary of State is very sympathetic to it as well. In my view, £45 million to enable 22,000 people suffering from serious sight loss to travel to job interviews, travel to work, participate as equal members of society and, dare I say, have some right of control over their lives is not an enormous price to pay, especially nowadays. I urge the Government—please, please, please—to accept the logic that blind people should have access to the higher rate of the mobility component of disability living allowance if they meet the relevant criteria. My final point relates to the role of the voluntary and private sectors as providers. Not much has been said about that so far. I believe that the employment service should be the best possible for the individual. I do not particularly care who provides it. I know of voluntary sector providers—and some in the private sector—who do a fantastic job, and I have no problem with that. However, as the Minister will know, many organisations argue that awarding larger and fewer contracts to non-specialist providers is, in Mencap's words,"““squeezing expert, niche providers out of the tendering process””." Payment by results might also mean that those who received the support were those nearest to the labour market. I look forward to receiving assurances from the Minister on both those issues.