Welfare Reform Bill

The surest and most sustainable way to address child poverty is to support more parents into work, which pays and allows them to manage the careful balance between employment and family life. For that goal to be met, we want to ensure that preparation for work becomes a natural progression rather than a sudden step up. The clause allows us to invent this natural progression by introducing a progression-to-work group, as recommended by Paul Gregg in his independent report, Realising Potential: A Vision for Personalised Conditionality and Support. The report recommends that the parents and partners of certain benefit recipients with younger children within the group undertake mandatory action planning and work-related activities that are flexible and personally tailored to their needs and circumstances to prepare them for work. I stress up front that we are not forcing anyone into work, apart from rare instances of non-co-operation where there may be the need of a direction to push people to do things they do not want to do. I say again, it is about preparing parents for work to avoid that sudden step up when their youngest child reaches seven and they have to make themselves available for work and actively seek work. New Section 2D allows the Secretary of State to make regulations that may require a person in receipt of income support or the partner of a person receiving income support, income-based jobseeker’s allowance or income-related employment and support allowance, to undertake work-related activity as part of their progression to work. New Section 2E provides for action plans for persons in receipt of certain benefits and to the partners of such people who are required to attend a word-focused interview under the provisions of new Sections 2A and 2AA of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act. The benefits in question are income support, income-based jobseeker’s allowance or income-related employment and support allowance. Regulations made under this section will provide details in relation to the form, content, review and updating of action plans. When a person is required under the provisions of Section 2D to undertake work-related activity, the action plan will contain details of the activities that will allow that requirement to be met. The regulations will also allow the person provided with an action plan to ask for it to be reconsidered; they will set out the circumstances and time in which such a request may be made and the matters to be considered when deciding on reconsideration, notification of the reconsideration and directions giving effect to the decision on reconsideration. New Section 2F allows the Secretary of State to direct those groups detailed under new Section 2D to undertake specific work-related activities detailed in the action plan. However, such a direction must be reasonable—this touches on the point about vulnerable people with mental health and learning disabilities—and have regard to the person’s circumstances. The specific activity identified should be one that helps the individual to prepare for entry. Section 2G provides the Secretary of State to authorise certain functions in relation to work-focused interviews, action plans and directions to be contracted out to external providers. Parental employment is the single biggest determinant of family income, and children in out-of-work families are at high risk of poverty. Living in a household where no adult is working puts a child at a 61 per cent risk of poverty. That is much higher than the 30 per cent risk of poverty for children in households where at least one but not all adults are in work and an 8 per cent risk of poverty for children in households where all adults are in work. Therefore, ensuring that parents are given the help and support they need to prepare for work when it is appropriate for them will have a major impact on them and their children. Clause 2 agreed. Amendments 67 to 70 withdrawn.