Welfare Reform Bill

moved Amendment No. 49: 49: After Clause 21 , insert the following new Clause— ““Prescription charges Persons for whom employment and support allowance (income-based or contribution-based) is their only household income and who satisfy the savings threshold for income-based employment and support allowance are exempt from prescription charges.”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, the Minister is in such a generous mood that I have hopes for the amendment. We have tabled this amendment again, having reflected on the debate in Grand Committee and after receiving further evidence from our advisory groups. First, I should say that we are talking not about full passporting of all benefits for those on ESA but about free prescriptions. Free prescriptions are available for other benefit claimants, and it seems bizarre that they are not necessarily going to be available for all low income ESA claimants, who are, by definition, in poor health. I must reiterate what I said in Grand Committee, which is that a MORI- commissioned survey five years ago showed that as many as 750,000 people were failing to get their prescriptions dispensed because they could not afford the charge. It is worth taking a little time to examine what happens now. As things currently stand, those on the contributory strand of jobseeker’s allowance move across, after six months, to the income support JSA, so this group can access free prescriptions that way, but there is nothing similar in this Bill for those on the contributory strand of ESA. In general, looking at all those entitled to free prescriptions, there are those aged 60 and over; those aged under 16, or under 19 and in full-time education; those receiving income support or the guarantee credit of pension credit, or income-based JSA; and some are receiving working tax credit or child tax credit. Another group that receives free prescriptions are pregnant women and those who have given birth in the past 12 months, regardless of their income, so there is a clear precedent for extending the exemption from prescription charges beyond those in receipt of income-based benefits. Is it not likely that ESA claimants will be just as much in need of an exemption from prescription costs—if not more so—than anyone in one of those categories? One very important question is whether or not the fact that claimants are unable to afford to pay for the prescriptions they need will be treated as having good cause in the event that they are unable to comply with the conditionality imposed on them. That question was not raised in Committee. What we are asking for is some adjustment to the initial application for ESA to incorporate a suitable income test, the outcome of which could be passed to the Department of Health, which administers the exemptions system. There is some precedent for such a system and information-sharing between government departments in the liaison between the HM Revenue and Customs and the Department of Health on exemptions for tax credit claimants. Does the Minister agree that this suggestion fits in with the Government’s aspiration to improve their service to their customers, or claimants, by using technology to share information between government departments? In Grand Committee, the Minister spoke about the change to the system of prepayment certificates from July this year, which is very welcome for those on low incomes. However, Citizens Advice client evidence suggests that awareness of both the prepayment certificates and the low income scheme is poor. Some clients find out about the operation of these schemes only when they seek advice because they cannot afford their prescriptions or because they received a penalty for fraud as a result of claiming exemptions to which they wrongly believed they were entitled. The distinction in exemption entitlements between income-based and contributory-based benefits is often not obvious to claimants, especially as both may be paid at the same weekly rates. The amendment gives an opportunity to avoid carrying over into the new ESA regime the unfairness contained within the existing IB system by making all low-income ESA claimants exempt from prescription charges. Making sure that ESA claimants are able to access medication prescribed for them should be central to the Government’s welfare reform agenda. The clear focus in ESA is to address people’s health problems so that they can be encouraged back to work. Its introduction strengthens the case for tackling this problem to ensure that efforts to improve condition management are not undermined. I beg to move.