Welfare Reform Bill

These amendments, like Amendment 14, relate to hardship. Before I begin to address these specific amendments, I should repeat that we intend to replicate in "work for your benefit" the hardship provisions that currently apply in jobseeker’s allowance. These amendments would damage our ability to do that but I accept that they are probing amendments. Amendment 16 focuses specifically on the requirement for claimants to provide information allowing decisions on hardship to be made. I think it is self-evident that the information provided by claimants about their personal circumstances is vital in determining whether they receive a hardship payment. No reasonable decision could be made without such information. I also believe it is reasonable that the onus is on the customers to demonstrate why they feel that they would suffer hardship without the payments. We are talking here about a group of jobseekers who are capable of work and will have been found, by a decision-maker, to be failing in their responsibility to engage with employment support. It should not be an onerous task to provide basic details of their own personal circumstances to facilitate a decision on hardship payment. When that is provided, the information, backed up where necessary by further verification, will be used to determine whether they qualify for a payment. Amendment 17 would remove some clarity from the Bill surrounding the ways in which we could use the hardship regime. The wording, as it stands, makes it clear that a hardship payment would not necessarily have to last for the entire length of a sanction. We would not, for example, want a claimant to continue to get hardship payments for the length of their sanction if they were no longer in hardship due to their circumstances having changed. That would make a nonsense of the hardship regime. Although the amendment would not necessarily prevent us achieving this aim, it would introduce potential doubt about the scope of the powers. It would also make the drafting inconsistent with previous and similar powers elsewhere in social security legislation and would risk introducing unnecessary complexity and confusion into the legislation. Specific information which might be needed could include birth certificates, child benefit books, a note from a doctor, a repeat prescription, or details of someone for whom the claimant has caring responsibilities, such as award notices or bank or building society statements. The noble Lord asked why we are taking hardship provisions in the Bill if they already exist elsewhere. Although provisions exist elsewhere, we need provision here to enable payments to be made to participants in this scheme. One reason for including these provisions is to ensure that our policy on "work for your benefit" is transparent rather than simply constructing it through regulations under existing powers. The level of information required will depend on the circumstances but decision-makers must be satisfied on the balance of probabilities. The noble Lord, Lord Kirkwood, pressed me on a wider matter. He asked: if statutory deductions are applicable, how will that inter-relate with the hardship regime? We do not envisage that there will be a change from the existing arrangements, but I shall write to him on that. On that basis, I hope that the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw the amendment.