Welfare Reform Bill

I support this amendment. I thought that it was very admirable when I first saw it. It is clear that we are talking about a very complicated piece of legislation, which refers to the rights and duties of claimants. It is very necessary that those claimants should know what those rights and duties are. If they do not know what their duties are, they may not get their rights. It seems to me necessary to have some sort of charter which establishes where they stand and what they may do if they do not get what they think they are entitled to. Subsection (3) of the proposed new clause refers to the provision of regulations to enable benefit claimants to make complaints to an ombudsman. That is very sensible as well because the Bill provides for employment services to be contracted out, so very often you will have not public services but private providers. In such circumstances it seems to me very necessary that there should be some means for claimants to make complaints appropriately and to be able to put them to an ombudsman service when they believe they have not received their rights. Therefore, I hope that my noble friend will feel that there is something to be said for this amendment, and that even if he does not like its wording he will produce something like it before the Bill leaves this House.