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Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, on the first question on whether the child happens not to be in school on their fifth birthday, there will be a small number of lone parents that we are aware of whose youngest child is aged five but who has not yet started school. We are therefore going to expand the existing flexibilities within jobseeker’s allowance to support these lone parents through the short period of time until their child enters school or reaches compulsory school age, whichever comes sooner. On the question raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, about the dinner lady—people who are employed through the school year—where the dinner lady is presumably on a contract through the process then clearly she has a job and would escape conditionality in holiday periods because she would be working in a long-term job. As one gets to short term fillings-in I expect that it becomes a bit more detailed and dependent on particular circumstances. The broad position, however, would be that they would be within the job for that period.