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Welfare Reform Bill

The noble Lord has once again raised an interesting matter. Will this include someone with literacy difficulties, such as dyslexia, or who has failed to achieve certain academic standards? In either case, allowing a person to have someone present whom they trust to help, as opposed to an official, would be beneficial. I raise this as a result of a visit I made to Chelmsford prison, where there are many people with very poor literacy, due mainly to dyslexia. They said that one of their difficulties was the inability to admit the problem, which immediately placed them in a confrontational situation that was exacerbated by some of the guards. This may be slightly off the Minister’s brief but such people will go through this system and if we fail them, we will fail a large number who will make their small contribution to the reoffending rate. It would be helpful if we could have guidance about how someone could be brought in, often in an informal manner, to help them through these interviews; that might also allay concerns I may have about later parts of the Bill.