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Welfare Reform Bill

They could, but I shall certainly be keen to see a lot more details of the testing that the Government have in mind. Perhaps the Minister will say more about that when he winds up the debate. It is also important to understand how the new capability assessment relates to the proposed work-related health-focused assessments. If only those on the work-related activity premium are to be subjected to the latter, but the two assessments are supposed to take place at the same time—as it says in the explanatory notes—how will it be decided whether it is appropriate for someone to move on to the work-related health-focused assessment at stage two? Will that decision be taken on the day, or will they be invited back? It will be disappointing if, as has been hinted, the new assessment is still to be based purely on a medical model of illness and disability. A test that can take account of psycho-social factors and the barriers that disabled people face would give fairer outcomes. The Government recognised in their Green Paper that the term ““personal capacity assessment”” had negative connotations. However, so does a test for ““limited capability””. If the tests are to be taken together, they should be given a different name, such as the labour market disadvantage test. That would signpost a different approach, focused on identifying impairment-related barriers to work. I hope that the Government will consider that suggestion. I want to turn now to the conditionality arrangements in the Bill. The principle of responsibility is an essential part of liberalism. Provided that comprehensive support is available to help individuals to get back to work, and appropriate safeguards are in place to protect the most vulnerable, the idea that people should take responsibility for engaging with the available support is one that we encourage. Indeed, it must surely be a central objective of policy to reach a position where disabled people are supported to the extent that they can play their role as full and active citizens, with all the rights and responsibilities that that entails. However, we have some concerns about the conditionality regime as it is proposed in the Bill. Conditionality will apply not only to engaging with support through work-focused interviews, which we support, but to work-focused activity and, according to the Bill, to taking part in additional work-focused health-related assessments—although the Secretary of State suggested in response to my intervention that the Government had now dropped that plan, which sounds quite sensible. Pathways to work will need much higher investment if the balance between the quality of support and the personal responsibility of the claimant is to be fair. That is particularly important if the receipt of benefit is to be conditional on work-related activity. Nor, in the Government’s proposals, is there any limit to the period for which conditionality will apply. If someone has struggled to enter the labour market for a long time without success, despite benefiting from the full range of support on offer, should they really be forced to continue to take part in fruitless activity? By leaving the details entirely to secondary legislation, the Government are allowing the possibility that a less compassionate Government—or, indeed, the present Government in one of their less compassionate moods—could increase the sanctions and reduce the support.