My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment 56, which is in my name. Its purpose is to require Jobcentre Plus staff who are drawing up the claimant commitment to specifically address whether the claimant has a long-term health condition or impairment and, if so, what reasonable adjustments are required.
I believe that this amendment is necessary. It may be assumed that, if someone is claiming JSA or its equivalent in universal credit, they do not have a long-term health condition or impairment that affects their day-to-day functioning and limits their jobseeking. However, the descriptors for the work capability assessment to decide whether someone is fit for work mean that many people whose day-to-day functioning is quite significantly affected are found fit for work and have no other option but to claim JSA or the equivalent in universal credit. They may have considerable limitations on the ways in which they can job search. For example, someone in their late 50s who has emphysema and can walk only 100 metres is likely to be found fit for work but, if they live a mile away from the nearest computer that they can use or a mile away from the nearest bus stop, they are likely to have considerable difficulties in logging on to jobmatch or in going to the jobcentre.
When that is not taken into account in their claimant commitment, sick and disabled people find themselves being sanctioned because they have not been able to comply with the conditionality. One client of Citizens Advice had a knee injury and was awaiting surgery to reconstruct the knee. He was attending frequent appointments with a physiotherapist at the hospital. He also had a mental health condition and had been having suicidal thoughts, so he also had regular appointments with a psychologist. His WCA found him fit for work, and he claimed JSA while appealing this decision. His job coach told him that he had to sign on weekly. His ex-wife had to take him each week, otherwise he would not have been able to get there. His job coach then decided that he would have to come in every day. He explained again about his knee problem but was warned that if he did not come in he would be sanctioned.
At that point his ex-wife, who had brought him, could see that he was really struggling with his anger and agreed with him that he should leave, despite realising that this would mean he would be sanctioned. Part of his mental health condition was that he was having anger management issues. He was not sanctioned because, before this could happen, the adviser managed to get the decision-maker to accelerate the reconsideration. The fit-for-work decision was overturned and he was placed in the support group.
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I recently launched a research report called Waiting for Credit, published by a group of Citizens Advice local offices, which looks at the delivery of universal credit. I hope the Minister has had the opportunity to read it. Four in 10 respondents to the survey who identified themselves as disabled or having a long-term health condition said that that condition or impairment had been taken into account when their claimant commitment was drawn up. Some made really positive comments about the support they had received, but about five in 10 said that their health condition or impairment had not been taken into account. The following comment by one of the respondents reflects the feeling of many in this group who left comments:
“They have kept threatening me that I need to do more and don’t want to know about my medical condition and why I can’t do what they want”.
Many Jobcentre Plus advisers do not seem to accept that someone who is not claiming ESA or its universal credit equivalent can have a long-term health condition or impairment that needs to be taken into account. Their reaction is to ignore any mention of a health condition, and if a claimant insists that they need some adjustments to their claimant commitment, they tell the person to claim ESA.
This had serious consequences for a CAB client who had been working 20 years as a machine driver before suffering a heart attack. After 14 weeks off sick, he was keen to resume work. He still had angina and was not fit enough to return to his former job, so he claimed JSA. His GP was happy for him to resume light work, as long as the hours were limited. However, his job coach kept pushing him to apply for unsuitable jobs and said he was not trying hard enough. When the client refused to apply for a job 23 miles away that involved heavy lifting and working 46 hours a week, he was told he would need to claim ESA. He claimed ESA and was refused. It was awarded on appeal, but during the stress of all this he had become increasingly depressed. When he then received a DWP letter saying it was challenging the tribunal decision, he went missing for three days and was found in the woods by the police. He is now being treated for depression and has had a further heart attack.
Once the digital service is rolled out and income-based ESA is no longer available in a given area, a claimant will have to claim universal credit instead and will be in the full work-related requirements group until they have a WCA. This protection will be even more necessary then.
An amendment similar to this one was tabled during the debate on the Welfare Reform Bill in 2011, when the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Freud, said the following:
“Of course, for those claimants required to look for work, where it is appropriate to place limitations on work, search and availability requirements, this will be properly reflected in the claimant commitment”.—[Official Report, 24/10/11; col. GC 225.]
It is of course accepted that it is government policy that reasonable adjustments should be made, but what happens in a local office is often rather different from the policy intent. It is now clear that more protection is needed.
Good training of Jobcentre Plus officials in this area is clearly vital. However, by addressing this issue, a statutory part of drawing up the claimant commitment is impossible to ignore, and there is a much stronger possibility of any reasonable adjustments being properly considered.