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Welfare Reform Bill

The answer, from the noble Baroness’s point of view, is that the amendment is needed, because what she says is right. I shall develop that. I want to make it clear from the outset that any requirement to undertake work-related activity will always take fully into account the family circumstances and requirements of the parent. We are also discussing specific exemptions from the work-related activity provisions with stakeholder groups. When we introduced the requirement for most lone parents with older children—when the youngest child reaches age seven—to move from income support on to jobseeker’s allowance, we set a number of precedents for exemptions. Under those provisions for lone parents on jobseeker’s allowance—the work-ready group—regulations specifically excluded lone parents who were in receipt of carer’s allowance or who have a child in receipt of the middle-rate or highest-rate care component of DLA, but not the lower rate. Parents with children in receipt of the lower-rate care component—