Welfare Reform Bill

Amendment 41 41: Schedule 3, page 74, line 12, leave out from beginning to end of line 39 on page 75 and insert— "Requirement to attend an assessment for treatment 6 (1) Regulations may make provision for or in connection with imposing on a person a requirement to attend an assessment for treatment. (2) Regulations under this paragraph must include provision for the requirement mentioned in sub-paragraph (1) to be imposed on a person only if, as a result of an assessment carried out under regulations under paragraph 2, the Secretary of State is satisfied that— (a) the person is dependent on, or has a propensity to misuse, any drug, and (b) the person’s dependency or propensity is a factor affecting the person’s prospects of obtaining or remaining in work. (3) The requirements are that during the specified period (which may not exceed 52 weeks or, if the case is exceptional, 104 weeks) the person— (a) must attend an assessment for treatment by or under the direction of a person having the necessary qualifications or experience, (b) must take part in specified interviews, and specified assessments, at specified places and times, and (c) must take such other steps (if any) as may be specified, with a view to the reduction or elimination of the person’s dependency on, or propensity to misuse, the drug in question. (4) Regulations under this paragraph may, in particular, make provision— (a) for suspending any jobseeker’s agreement to which a person is a party for any period during which the person has consented to a rehabilitation plan; (b) for securing that a person who is required to comply with an assessment for treatment provides information, and such evidence as may be prescribed, as to compliance with the assessment. (5) A jobseeker’s allowance may also be known as a "treatment allowance" at any time when— (a) it is payable in respect of a person who is consenting to a rehabilitation plan (or would be so payable if compliance with the plan is assumed), or (b) it is payable in respect of a joint-claim couple both members of which are consenting to comply with a rehabilitation plan (or would be so payable if compliance with the plans is assumed). (6) Regulations under this paragraph may not impose a requirement on a person at any time unless the person would (apart from the regulations) be required to meet the job seeking conditions at that time. (7) Regulations under this paragraph must include provision for securing that a person is not required to submit to medical or surgical treatment without the person’s consent."