Welfare Reform Bill

At the work-focused interview? Yes, it is the personal adviser plus their intermediary. Just for the record, the work-focused health-related assessment will be conducted by a healthcare professional, ideally with an occupational health background. Decision-makers are employees of Jobcentre Plus. They have the delegated responsibility from the Secretary of State to apply the law in making decisions about benefit entitlement. If noble Lords will forgive me for going into a bit of detail here, decisions on claim and applications are made by the Secretary of State. Jobcentre Plus discharges the Secretary of State’s decision-making role to a suitably trained member of staff, known as a ““decision-maker””. Routine, straightforward decisions, such as the gathering of information to complete claims, are made on Jobcentre plus sites. However, more complex decisions—for example, benefit suspension—will be made by a smaller number of more highly trained staff in the benefit delivery centre. Those specialist decision-makers have greater experience and specialise in particular benefits. The important point to make here is that those decision-makers are experts in the application of knowledge about benefits; they are not healthcare professionals. They know about entitlement and how entitlement decisions should be made. They use the reports given to them by Atos Origin healthcare professionals to make decisions. I hope we are getting there on that. Reading the Bill, I appreciate how difficult it is to get a picture of how it will work. I apologise if it is not coming across as simply as possible. The noble Baroness, Lady Thomas, asked whether the timing of the work-focused, health-related assessment might cause a conflict of interest between customers. I would argue that that will not happen. The work-focused, health-related assessment is a key development that will transform the PCA from a negative assessment focusing simply on functional limitations to a more positive one focusing on residual capability and how it might be improved. The work-focused, health-related assessment will advise the personal adviser looking after the customer on the kinds of health-related interventions that would benefit the customer, such as a condition-management programme. It will enable the adviser to ensure that the customer sees results. I think that it is a really positive move. I apologise for speaking at such length. The noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, picked up on the role of the decision maker—I think I have already covered that—and the issue of flexibility in applying Clause 9. As I said, based on the customers’ specific health needs at the time, we can be flexible about the timing of appointments for the work-focused, health-related assessment that happens after the first joint Clause 8 and Clause 9 assessment. I therefore urge the noble Lord to withdraw the amendment.