Jobseeker’s Allowance (Work for your Benefit Pilot Scheme) Regulations 2010

My Lords, these regulations were laid in draft before the House on 24 February and debated in the other place on 23 March. I am satisfied that their provisions are fully compatible with our obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. They lay out a legal framework for a Work for your Benefit pilot scheme in four Jobcentre Plus districts, which will constitute a six-month programme of externally provided work experience and employment support for those jobseeker’s allowance customers who are not successful in finding a job during the Flexible New Deal stage. The draft regulations state when a person must take part in the Work for your Benefit scheme and set out the sanctions regime which will apply should they fail to do so without good cause. They also contain a number of safeguards to protect our most vulnerable customers, while at the same time ensuring a continuation of the job search activity that is central to the jobseeker’s agreement. I know that noble Lords will be familiar with the scheme from our debates during the passage of the last Welfare Reform Bill, which received Royal Assent last November. Nevertheless, I will remind noble Lords of the details of the Work for your Benefit scheme, before outlining the specific provisions of the draft regulations which we are here to debate. At the heart of Work for your Benefit is the idea that the best way we can help the long-term unemployed is by keeping them as close to the labour market as possible. To this end, the scheme provides a programme of work experience and employment support for those JSA customers who face particularly challenging barriers to returning to work. It will serve as an additional layer of support beyond the Flexible New Deal stage. The scheme will see external providers sourcing work experience programmes for jobseekers as a way of helping them to gain or regain the skills, routine and mindset required for their move into sustainable work. The nature of the work experience on offer will vary widely according to the needs of participants, but it will mean a working week of 30 hours for most people, as well as up to 10 hours of externally provided employment support. Any easements and flexibilities limiting availability for work within a customer’s jobseeker’s agreement will apply to the placements, so those available only for part-time work will have that commitment honoured. The placements, however, are not jobs. They will exist over and above the staffing requirements of organisations. Safeguards will be in place to ensure that current or future jobs are not threatened, while organisations providing the placements will be required to sign declarations stating that this is the case. We envisage around 5,000 customers participating in the pilot scheme, who will normally be referred to the Work for your Benefit scheme after two years of unemployment. There will, however, be scope for up to 250 people to be referred to the scheme at an earlier point in their claim, should their adviser deem it beneficial. Lone parents will not be subject to early referral, given their parenting responsibilities. Eligible lone parents will, however, be required to take part in the scheme if they reach the end of Flexible New Deal without finding sustained employment. We do not believe that it can ever be acceptable to write a person off as unemployable. We should continue to offer support, regardless of how long a person has been out of work, so we will expect lone parents to engage with the support on offer once their children become older. The requirement to participate in Work for your Benefit will only apply to lone parents claiming jobseeker’s allowance—that is, lone parents with older children. All the flexibilities we have put in place for lone parents within the jobseeking regime will of course continue to apply in Work for your Benefit. For example, lone parents may only be required to participate in term time. We have also recently introduced a new right for lone parents with a child of 12 and under, restricting their availability for work to their child’s normal school hours. These protections continue this Government’s commitment to helping lone parents achieve a constructive work-life balance. Noble Lords may also be aware that yesterday we published Building Bridges to Work: New Approaches to Tackling Long-Term Worklessness. That paper includes a package of measures to support the long-term unemployed and those on sickness benefits getting back to work. One element of this package is a jobseeker’s guarantee, giving jobseekers a guaranteed offer of a job, internship, volunteering placement or work experience after two years of being out of work. That guarantee ensures that we are supporting those who have been hardest hit by the recession. However, we still want properly to test and evaluate the approaches to support we will deliver in the Work for your Benefit pilots. The pilots will therefore run in parallel to the new guarantee in pilot areas, allowing us to gather evidence on the impact of full-time work experience to inform our longer-term strategy and further development of the jobseeker guarantee. It is right, however, that in this economic climate we do not wait two years for evaluation before we put in place extra support nationally. The draft regulations will allow us to implement a pilot scheme in four English Jobcentre Plus districts. These are: Greater Manchester Central; Greater Manchester East and West; Cambridgeshire and Suffolk; and Norfolk. In particular, the regulations will state who will be required to take part in the Work for your Benefit scheme and establish a sanctions regime to underpin the pilots. Customers will be required to participate in the scheme either when they are randomly allocated to that option prior to commencing the Flexible New Deal or when they are referred by their Jobcentre Plus adviser at an earlier point in their claim. Customers who fail to participate in the scheme without good cause will be subject to a regime of escalating sanctions. Jobseeker’s allowance may be withheld for two weeks in the first instance of a breach of agreement, four weeks for a second breach, and two weeks for a third or subsequent act or omission. For the new scheme to be successful, we must encourage those JSA claimants who are selected to participate to engage fully. Mandatory programmes engage greater numbers of people, and they are sometimes necessary to help those who face the greatest barriers to work. Those other benefits which a customer may be claiming will not be affected by the sanctions regime. Only jobseeker’s allowance payments will be suspended in the course of a breach of the jobseeker’s agreement for customers on Work for your Benefit. As in other employment programmes, the regulations provide for hardship payments to be available for customers in vulnerable groups to ensure they can continue to receive their jobseeker’s allowance at a reduced rate. These regulations also ensure that participants continue to meet the entitlement conditions for jobseeker’s allowance while they are participating in full-time activity. Our external providers will facilitate a full range of job search support for up to 10 hours per week for the duration of the scheme, so by virtue of taking part in the scheme, customers will be actively seeking work. In addition, to provide flexibilities to smooth the transition to work, the regulations allow customers 48 hours to attend an interview and up to one week to start work. I finish by restating the Government’s commitment to helping into work all those who can work. We have revolutionised our service provision for jobseekers, and the innovative nature of the Flexible New Deal is an example of this. However, even the bespoke support offered by the Flexible New Deal cannot help everyone into work, so we want to trial the new Work for your Benefit scheme as an extra layer of support. Moving our most vulnerable customers as close to the labour market as possible is essential to realising their potential. This pilot aims to furnish long-term jobseekers with the skills and habits needed to re-enter the world of work, but it will also grant them access to externally provided job search support and advice. I thank noble Lords for their valuable contributions during the passage of the Bill last year. I hope that they will agree to these regulations so that we may put our words into practice. I beg to move.