Welfare Reform Bill

Despite what the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, just said, I understand that the Mental Health Act 1983 as it currently stands, without the alterations in the Bill to which she referred, covers mentally disabled patients who have been discharged under supervision and who are living in their own homes, hoping—this is the important point—to integrate themselves into society. I understand that the provision will be extended by the Bill currently going through Parliament, which amends the Act, with the introduction of community treatment orders. I am not actually talking about them, but about the Act as it currently stands. I am afraid that I cannot therefore support the amendment. It seems to consign even those who have voluntarily chosen to undergo treatment to perpetual low expectations and refuses to give them incentives to improve their readiness for work. While we are talking about which people should automatically be included in the support group, has the Minister given any more thought to the point raised by Macmillan Cancer Support, to which I referred last week, that many forms of oral chemotherapy or, indeed, radiotherapy are just as debilitating as intravenous chemotherapy? Is there any chance that the Government will expand the group of those immediately considered of limited ability to undertake work-related activity to include all terminally ill cancer patients? I have one more question. If the terminally ill are to be fast tracked into the support group—and they are—why does it take the whole of the period from the decision to the end of the 13-week assessment period for the claimant assessed as being in need of support, and therefore going into the support group, to get the support rate? Why cannot the rest of the 13 weeks be waived once that decision has been made? I hope that the Minister can answer those two questions.