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Jobseeker’s Allowance (Lone Parents) (Availability for Work) Regulations 2010

My Lords, I am grateful for the strong support from the noble Baroness, Lady Thomas, for these regulations and a degree of support from the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, although he would like them to cover other things as well. The noble Baroness is right that there are opportunities under the arrangements at the moment for flexibility to be introduced into the system, but making it a particular right in these circumstances is really to give added reassurance to lone parents of young children. We think that it makes it easier for them to access the labour market in a way that they can feel confident about if there are normal schooling arrangements for their children. It simply adds to existing flexibility, but that existing flexibility will continue and does not just focus on lone parents. The noble Baroness referred to research report 624. I was not quite sure whether that was an evaluation relating to the Flexible New Deal. We think that it is too early in the evaluation to give an assessment of the operation of lone parent obligations. We are due to publish findings on the early implementation and experiences of the income support and jobseeker’s allowance regimes in the spring, so the impact of the lone parent obligations has yet to come. To emphasise the point that I made a moment ago, let me say that the right that we are covering in these regulations is intended to help lone parents to work around their children’s school hours. It therefore just applies during term times. Issues around holidays can be dealt with within the confines of the existing flexibilities. There will still be opportunities—particularly when there is no affordable, accessible childcare available during school holidays, for example—for advisers and claimants to agree on claimants not being available for work during that period. I was pleased that the noble Baroness acknowledged that there had been good consultation with stakeholders. I think that that is a strong strand of what the DWP is about. As we announced in our recent White Paper, Building Britain’s Recovery: Achieving Full Employment, published in December, we have launched a family-friendly working hours task force to look at the support that employers need to make work much more family-friendly. That deals in part with the thrust of the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Taylor. I agree with him about the importance of work for the health and self-esteem of individuals and that it is their best route out of poverty; I also agree about the importance of having such role models in families. We are determined to break the endless cycle of people growing up with nobody in the household working, which passes down through generations. I believe that we are making good progress on that. I revert to the point raised by the noble Lord about sanctions and the disagreement that we had over the Welfare Reform Act in relation to the progression-to-work group—those lone parents with the youngest child between the ages of three and six. We intend, as we pilot that progression to work, to have a different sanctions regime on the Gregg model, which starts with people being notified and contacted with warning letters before we ever get to financial sanctions. The difficulty with the proposition of the noble Lord and his colleague the noble Lord, Lord Freud, is that it is illogical. They accepted that you could have a financial sanction for not turning up to a work-focused interview but could not be subject to a financial sanction for not undertaking an action that would have been directed under the action plan. Not only was that confusing, but it was illogical. The thrust of the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Freud, was that, even if he did not, in certain circumstances, want financial penalties, he did not preclude there being sanctions of some sort, although we never quite got to the bottom of what that might mean. The noble Lord, Lord Taylor, talked about protecting lone parents with children under the age of five. Lone parents with younger children will have this protection if they are required to undertake work-related activity in the progression-to-work pathfinder areas. This will be introduced in October. Lone parents will be able to restrict their work-related activity to school and nursery hours. The noble Baroness, Lady Thomas, asked about the impact on lone parents. We know that around 15,000 lone parents on JSA have moved into work since the lone parent obligations were introduced. Around 900 lone parents have been sanctioned, so fears about the potential scope of the sanctions have perhaps been overstated. Approximately 51,000 lone parents were on jobseeker’s allowance as at December 2009. That was a small increase on the previous month. On-flows are still occurring, but off-flows are occurring as well, at a rate that is almost equivalent. According to the latest national statistics, from August 2009, 715,000 lone parents were on income support. This has fallen by more than 100,000 in the past five years. The early estimate for the working-age income support lone parent client group stood at 695,000 in December, which was down by around 35,000 since November 2008. There is a process whereby lone parents are moving from the inactive benefit to a benefit where they are helped to and required to engage. The noble Baroness asked about housing benefit. We shall look at guidance to ensure that advisers make it clear that housing benefit is an in-work benefit. Lone parents, like other benefit claimants, are offered better-off-in-work calculations. I cannot straightaway tell the noble Baroness quite where we are on the proposition of doing a calculation once and extending it for a six-month period, but I shall look into it and write to her. If recollection serves me correctly, I think that it was in the paper that we published in December, but to be quite where we are on it I shall need to check. If there are no further points, I commend the regulations to the House. Motion agreed.