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Welfare Reform Bill

Debate on whether Clause 1, as amended, should stand part of the Bill. This clause breaks new ground and is the cause of grave concern for many different voluntary organisations. There seems to be a lot of confusion about it and about Clause 2 —not least earlier in the Grand Committee—and I invite the Minister to clarify this part of the Bill. I have already spoken to him about it and I think he will welcome the opportunity to do so. The first thing we need to have spelt out so that everyone is clear about it is who will and who will not fall under Clause 1. In particular, it is important to know at what stage lone parents, mostly mothers, will come under this "work for your benefits" scheme, assuming that it is rolled-out across the country. We do not know, of course, when income support will be abolished. This is causing its own problems. Those moved off income support onto jobseeker’s allowance will not come under Clause 1 either, as they will not be expected to look for work in spite of being labelled "jobseekers". When will they come under Clause 1? The Minister might also make it clear that "work for your benefit" is intended to be a pilot scheme, presumably in a few areas of the country only. We are told that it will be fully evaluated before—and if—it is rolled-out across the country, but this is not in the Bill. Could "work for your benefit" be rolled-out without a pilot, even by another Government? I suppose it could be. We have to hope that the employment situation, which is now expected to reach over 3 million unemployed next year, will have improved when and if "work for your benefit" is rolled out, so that the number of people out of work for two years is much smaller than predicted. Even though we are hearing about a few green shoots in the economy, unemployment is what I believe is called a "lag indicator" and will continue to rise for some time after definite green shoots appear. People are desperate now for real jobs; there will be more of them desperate for those jobs soon and they are likely to become very angry if they are pushed into compulsory make-work schemes, in return for minimal JSA, which will do nothing for their long-term prospects.