Welfare Reform Bill

The outsourcing of government services to companies, charities and voluntary organisations is now commonplace, but many of us are concerned, as the noble Lord, Lord Rix, said, about how these non-government bodies will be monitored in the particularly sensitive area of "work for your benefit" schemes. We are still talking about Clause 1. We are not talking about people on ESA at the moment, because that is not this part of the Bill. As the noble Lord, Lord Rix, said, there are a huge number of people with different disabilities—I am one—and we need to know how these outside bodies are performing in providing the right support for the different groups under this part of the Bill. One of the problems is that many people fall into more than one impairment category, and this would make the whole monitoring exercise difficult, not to say expensive. But without this evidence, how will we know whether these outside bodies are fulfilling their remit and not cherry-picking those easiest to place in employment? We do not know how the contracts are being drawn up, but by putting this requirement on the face of the Bill we will be reassured that progress on the employment of all jobseekers with disabilities is being monitored. It will also be very helpful to know whether the doubling of the budget of Access to Work, for example, is working. This would provide some evidence. So we strongly support the amendment. We believe that it is not beyond the wit of man to devise a good scheme for monitoring people with disabilities by impairment category.