Welfare Reform Bill

It depends on which benefit we are talking about, but the process would be engagement at the start of the claim and an action plan that is agreed, if we are considering jobseeker’s allowance, between the Jobcentre Plus adviser and the individual. What might flow from that at some point during the course of the programme would be a direction by Jobcentre Plus if an individual has failed to attend a work-focused interview or has not taken up an activity which they were mandated to do. The individual would be given an opportunity to say that they had good cause for not complying with the direction. The information is then passed to a decision-maker within Jobcentre Plus and that decision-maker would decide whether a sanction is to be applied to the individual. If the sanction is applied, the individual has an opportunity to appeal against it. That is the process, but along the way there are opportunities for the individual if the original action plan and the direction that flowed from it was inappropriate because of changes in circumstances to do with childcare, travel arrangements or perhaps health issues. Opportunities are provided to revisit the issues along the way. But if someone goes through the whole process, ultimately a decision-maker would apply a sanction subject to hardship provisions which we will come on to in due course.