Welfare Reform Bill

The Committee will realise, if it remembers what I said on the last group of amendments, that I am sympathetic to the noble Baroness, Lady Turner, on this one. However, I am not so sure that just putting the amendment into the Bill will be enough to satisfy those people from whom she has received correspondence. I note from page 23 of the Peers’ information pack that, after the Bill gets cracking, 13 groups of people will remain on income support until they are migrated. As I understand the matter—the Minister will correct me if I am wrong—that is to be by statutory instrument for each group, so we will be able to look exactly at how the modified JSA affects individual groups under, presumably, some sort of period; I cannot imagine that it will all be done rapidly. A lot of thought will have to be given to those on income support who are entitled to statutory sick pay, for example, or—the noble Baroness, Lady Turner, would be interested in this—people involved in trade disputes. Each will have a slightly different formulation. I cannot yet discover something; perhaps the Minister will help us. Page 23 states: ""With the exception of sick and disabled claimants and possibly those in receipt of statutory sick pay DWP plans to move them all onto the modified form of jobseeker’s allowance"." The question behind the amendment is really whether the modified formulation of JSA will be appropriate to each and every one of the 13 groups. That is what the Minister needs to answer.