Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, in moving Amendment 7, I will speak also to the other government amendments in this group. As noble Lords will be aware, in Committee I announced that we would table a number of government amendments to take into account the informative and thought-provoking debates that we had had. This set of amendments delivers those commitments and builds on them. The amendments provide the assurances and safeguards that noble Lords seek. I will start by briefly running through what these amendments do, but I want to spend the bulk of my time explaining what effect they will have on lone parents. Amendments 10 and 19 seek to introduce flexibility to allow lone parents undertaking work-related activity on employment and support allowance, and those affected by progression-to-work, to restrict the hours when they undertake work-related activity. It is intended that this flexibility will be used to allow such lone parents to restrict their hours of availability so that they fit around their children’s schooling or formal childcare. This has been introduced with the intention of mirroring the ability in jobseeker’s allowance to restrict the number of hours that they are available for work. I note in passing that the noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, has tabled amendments that seek to extend the provisions above for lone parents to all parents. However, we have chosen to amend primary legislation for lone parents because we want to highlight the added problems that they will have in combining work-related activity and their caring responsibilities and to protect them accordingly. We feel that parents, as a more general group, do not face the same barriers, because they can share caring. Amendments 19 and 21 place in primary legislation an assurance that lone parents with a youngest child aged below seven will not be required to meet the full jobseeking conditions of jobseeker’s allowance—for example, being available for work or actively seeking work. This will give strength to our position of allowing lone parents to be entitled to claim income support or modified jobseeker’s allowance until their youngest child is seven. Amendment 19 also removes the requirement for lone parents with a youngest child aged under one, and who are in receipt of income support and employment and support allowance, to attend work-focused interviews. To continue this across the benefits, Amendment 22 ensures that this position is carried forward into modified jobseeker’s allowance. Lone parents on income support or employment and support allowance, with a youngest child aged between one and two, will still be required to attend mandatory work-focused interviews and draw up an action plan; they can voluntarily access the support available via the New Deal for Lone Parents or Pathways to Work. Amendment 19 also seeks to put in primary legislation our intention that those lone parents with a youngest child aged between one and two, who are claiming employment and support allowance, will not be required to undertake any work-related activity. This means that only lone parents with a youngest child aged three or over can be required to undertake work-related activity. Noble Lords will be aware that, when amendments are tabled, minor amendments are needed to make the legislation work. Amendments 93, 94 and 96 are three such amendments. They are included so that when income support is eventually abolished all the statutory references go with it. Amendments 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 25 and 26 reaffirm our policy intention and make it clear in the Bill that only those lone parents who are on income support—and, in future, on modified JSA—and who have a youngest child aged between three and six, will be required to undertake work-related activity. To put these amendments in context, I will now cover the journey that a lone parent will make as a result of these amendments and the existing Bill provisions. As I have mentioned, lone parents with a youngest child under one will be in the "no conditionality" group. A "no conditionality" approach allows us to mirror other policies, such as changes to maternity entitlement and maternity and paternity leave, which already protect the position of lone parents in the important first year of a child’s life. This ensures that, during that first year, lone parents will have the right and the ability to look after and bond with their child, without any requirements to engage with Jobcentre Plus. However, this does not necessarily mean that they have no access to support and advice about preparation for work. They will still be able voluntarily to attend work-focused interviews and access the support and various benefits that are available to lone parents with a youngest child aged between one and two. Lone parents with a youngest child between one and two will be expected to attend mandatory work-focused interviews. When their youngest child is aged three to six, they will be expected to attend three-monthly work-focused interviews and agree an action plan with their adviser to undertake work-related activity. This action plan will set out their individual route to prepare them for work when it is appropriate for them. We expect that the action plan will be subject to the well-being provisions that we are about to debate. As we have discussed, this preparation for work may start with limited activity for the parent, gradually increasing as they move closer to the labour market and want to enter work or as their child becomes older and they feel more able to work. To support this gradual increase, tailored to the individual’s needs, we do not intend to have a specific definition of what will qualify as work-related activity. Rather, we want to establish the principle that these customers are on an active journey towards eventual employment, keeping the specific steps open for claimants and advisers to agree on an individual basis. For example, after their discussion, a parent and an adviser may agree that, because confidence is low and the lone parent is at the beginning of their journey and some way from the labour market, quarterly attendance at a children’s centre is an acceptable work-related activity as a starting point. At the other end of the scale, a parent who is much more prepared for work may agree with an adviser a more intensive activity, such as daily attendance at a short, part-time course, to develop or update work-related skills while their child is at school. We expect many lone parents with a youngest child aged between three and six to be among the hardest to help, likely to be some distance from the labour market and typically to have multiple barriers to employment. Work-related activity should therefore be interpreted broadly to meet their needs if it is to be most helpful. It should not be restricted to formal training or confidence building, although these could be qualifying activities. Unlike "work for your benefit", which is only for those on the full jobseeker’s allowance regime, and which we have already discussed, there will be no daily requirement to undertake activity, but there will be a minimal one to undertake one activity between work-focused interviews. This will allow advisers and lone parents flexibility in drawing up the action plans and tailoring activities to their individual needs and situation. Throughout this, they will be able to protect the time in which their children are normally not at school or in formal childcare. We will not require them to undertake any activity that cuts into that time. I stress that work-related activity will not require any lone parent to be available for or actively seeking work. Instead, it will help lone parents in their journey towards the workplace, improving their skills and their knowledge of what is available, in order to support them and prepare them for when their youngest child reaches seven, so that the move to jobseeking will not be a sudden step up but the next step in their journey towards work, as we have discussed. Then, when the child is seven or over, they will be subject to the jobseeker’s allowance regime and, where appropriate, be able to use the flexibilities that we introduced when we changed the entitlement conditions for income support for lone parents based on the age of their youngest child from November 2008. These flexibilities allow lone parents to be available for work for a minimum of 16 hours a week and allow them to refuse a job or to leave employment if childcare is not available. Additionally, a lone parent can restrict their availability so that this does not clash with school hours or formal childcare. We have also added the need for a personal adviser to ensure that the well-being of the child is taken into account when drawing up a jobseeker’s agreement. I believe that these amendments fulfil the obligations that we introduced in Committee. I beg to move.