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Welfare Reform Bill

Last weekend the Minister in charge of public service reform, Mr Liam Byrne, said that the Government were to offer better access to public services. He said: ""We need a power shift from Whitehall ministers and civil servants that currently have the power and move it to citizens … so we have been developing a strategy that takes public services away from a target culture to giving people rights and entitlement to core public services"." He may not have been talking specifically about the benefits system but my amendment setting out a claimants’ charter is surely in line with the Government’s new thinking. The proposal is all about enshrining a claimant’s rights and responsibilities in a charter that would be given to all benefit claimants at the beginning of their engagement with Jobcentre Plus or an external provider so that everyone knows where they stand. It would set out clearly the rights and obligations of Jobcentre Plus and the private providers and voluntary organisations that work under contract with Jobcentre Plus, and would be enforced by an independent ombudsman. It would set out clearly the claimant’s rights and responsibilities. My honourable friend in another place, Paul Rowen, moved a much more prescriptive amendment along the same lines in Committee in another place but this amendment is different and is very simple. In view of the groundbreaking nature of this Bill, it is surely a sensible provision and one that I hope the Government will not resist. How could they possibly resist? I beg to move.