Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, we believe that people with mental health problems and those with fluctuating conditions who move between benefits and work need to have their benefit position properly protected. I fully appreciate the concerns that noble Lords have raised about this important issue. The linking rules protect people receiving benefits because of incapacity for work—or, in the future, limited capability for work—who leave benefits and then find they need to return to it. The linking rules are designed to enable people to return to the same position on benefit as when they left it. The rules apply to incapacity benefit, income support, housing benefit and council-tax benefit, and they will also apply to ESA. Last October, in response to concerns about the complexity and the scope of the linking rules in incapacity benefits, we simplified and improved the rules in four ways. First, the long-term linking rule period for people who have been incapable of work for more than 196 days and who leave benefitfor work or training was doubled from 52 weeks to 104 weeks. Secondly, work or training that starts within a month of the benefit ending counts for the purpose of this rule, instead of that which starts within one week, as was previously the case. Thirdly, we have removed the requirement for a customer to provide formal notice at the point they leave benefit to start work or training. Prior to last October it was possible that some people would not qualify for protection because of this notice requirement. Instead the information about work or training will be gathered when a new claim is made. Fourthly, customers returning to benefit now requalify for the long linking rule immediately. They no longer have to spend a further 28 weeks on benefit before using the long linking rule again. We believe that those significant improvements provide considerable reassurance to people making the transition from benefit to work or training, which is so important if we are to fulfil our aspirations for reducing the number of economically inactive people. I fully appreciate the noble Baroness’s concerns about people with mental health problems having difficulty in coping with a return to benefit when a job does not work out, but a fully automatic system would not be appropriate. It is important to check that the customer’s circumstances have not changed substantially so that we can make sure that they receive the correct amount of benefit. If we did not undertake these checks, it is possible that vulnerable people may be asked to live on levels of benefits below their proper entitlement. Under the existing system, when a person returns to benefit and the linking rules apply, no referralis made for a personal capability assessment until13 weeks have elapsed. Benefit is awarded on the basis of a medical certificate from the GP, provided that all the usual conditions of entitlement are met. At that stage, further specialised information about a person’s mental health, such as from a psychiatrist, would not be needed for a benefit award, though further information may be sought after 13 weeks as part of the normal referral process for a personal capability assessment. We intend to carry forward this part of the existing system to ESA, thereby making partof the amendment unnecessary. In addition, it is important to realise that the linking rules will return a customer to the same place within the benefit; for example, someone returning to benefit via the linking rules would not need to serve the assessment phase again, provided he had completed it when previously on benefit. Last October, we also made further improvements to the claims process for benefits and extended the rapid reclaim process that applies to income support and jobseeker's allowance to incapacity benefit. People claiming incapacity benefit are able to make their new claim on a shortened rapid reclaim form if they have claimed incapacity benefit within the past 12 weeks and there has not been any relevant change of circumstances since their last claim. We intend that this new process will be carried forward to employment and support allowance. In addition, we also have arrangements in place for representatives to make claims on behalf of customers where a person is unable to look after his own affairs. This is particularly important for customers with mental health problems. Although improvements have been made, we cannot remove completely the requirement for people to provide a statement of their circumstances so that entitlement can be established accurately. This is important to us in our desire to reduce error and important to customers to ensure that they are not missing out on any potential entitlement. Finally, we are also improving the linking rule further by extending the existing short linking rule to 12 weeks for ESA customers. We believe the current arrangements strike a sensible balance, but we are conscious of the concerns expressed and the practical points raised, particularly by the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher. We continue to look at other ways of improving the claims process. I hope the noble Baroness feels able to withdraw her amendment.