I am very grateful to the Minister—I had not understood that at all. In that case, we are saying that each of these 15,000 people might have a different target of earnings that would allow them to exit from the conditionality and the programme. That raises some very significant ethical questions and I would strongly ask the Minister to consider giving more thought to this. I am very slowly doing a PhD. Before I am allowed to do anything involving other people—human subjects—I have to go to an ethics committee which puts me through my paces quite carefully. The consequences here are not just differential levels of support but that, potentially, two people in almost identical circumstances might do the same things, but one would lose three years’ worth of universal credit while the other loses nothing. That is a radical step for the Government to take. Has the Minister really thought through the ethics of that?
Universal Credit (Work-Related Requirements) In Work Pilot Scheme and Amendment Regulations 2015
Proceeding contribution from
Baroness Sherlock
(Labour)
in the House of Lords on Thursday, 22 January 2015.
It occurred during Debates on delegated legislation on Universal Credit (Work-Related Requirements) In Work Pilot Scheme and Amendment Regulations 2015.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
758 c454GC 
Session
2014-15
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords Grand Committee
Librarians' tools
Timestamp
2023-03-30 20:17:19 +0100
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