Welfare Reform Bill

The clause is obviously apposite to the purposes of the Bill, Pathways and everything that we have been discussing heretofore, but could it not be used for a slightly broader purpose? We should always remember that these important proceedings are focused finely on—to use horrible, inelegant jargon—the in-flow, as opposed to the stock, of claimants who are on incapacity benefit. The pilots and Pathways to Work have all been focused on new people coming into the system, approaching it for the first time and being handled under the new regime. However, in spite of our best endeavours, nothing much is being done directly to deal with those claimants who are already in the system. Many of them have been in it for a long time and many will eithersadly retire or go to the great Parliament in the sky before better arrangements can be made for their support. This mechanism is an essential step change from anything that we have seen previously in 20 years of public policy in this area. Therefore, if it works, as I hope it will, it should be applied more broadly to anybody who is on the stock at the time so that they might take advantage of what is being made available to first-time claimants under the new regime after A-day in 2008. I know that some provision in the system has already been made for that, but if the power is broad enough to enable a little creative thinking while we are waiting for A-day, and we can look at how the mechanism can be made readily available to the claimants on the stock, that would be welcome. I am certainly persuaded by my experience with my other colleagues who are work providers that a positive and helpful mechanism should not be restricted, as they would see it, merely to the inflow of new claimants. It is of course understandable that we need to get it up and running, that it has got to start somewhere and that this is a big enough task, but if there is to be some creative work with new pilots, can Clause 18 admit of some work that could be done between now and 2008 to see what other, new access can start to be made by those people who are marooned on the stock of incapacity benefit?