DWP minister to face questioning on jobseeker’s allowance
April 2011
The controversial element of the DWP’s Welfare to Work scheme is being scrutinised more closely by the House of Lords.
Employment minister Chris Grayling will appear before The House of Lords Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee on Tuesday 5 April to defend his proposals that jobseekers would lose benefits if they failed to take part in mandatory work schemes.
The committee, which draws attention to statutory instruments which are significant or may show defects, will ask the minister to explain what effects the regulations will have, and why the DWP appears not to have taken account of the committee’s earlier criticism that it had failed to explain the scheme to parliament satisfactorily.
DWP laid the Jobseeker’s Allowance (Mandatory Work Activity Scheme) Regulations before Parliament on 14 March. This is the latest in a series of DWP regulations in which the committee noted problems. The minister will also face questions on regulations about the Employment and Support Allowance, and the Social Fund Maternity Grant.
The evidence session will take place at 16:35 on Tuesday 5 April in Committee Room 3A of the House of Lords and is open to the public.
Key points to note are:
1. The session will be broadcast live at www.parliamentlive.tv and on BBC Parliament.
2. The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Mandatory Work Activity Scheme) Regulations give Jobcentre Plus Advisers the discretion to require a Jobseeker’s Allowance claimant to participate in a 4 week work or work-related Scheme or face the loss of 13 weeks’ benefit.
3. The Merits Committee commented in its 27th Report that it was “unacceptable that the House has been given insufficient information to understand the policy objective of the scheme; to determine how the scheme will work and effectively to assess whether the outcome will help claimants to improve their prospects of obtaining employment”.
4. The remit of the House of Lords Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee (the Merits Committee) is to examine each statutory instrument presented to the House and to draw attention to any which deal with matters of significant public policy interest or show flaws in certain areas. The Committee is Chaired by Rt Hon the Lord Goodlad. For more information about the Committee, see its website: http://www.parliament.uk/hlmerits.
5. Other recent DWP regulations which the Committee judged to be ‘rushed’ or ‘poorly explained’ include the Employment and Support Allowance (Limited Capability for Work and Limited Capability for Work-related Activity) (Amendment) Regulations (SI 2011/228): see the Merits Committee’s 23rd report (second item); and the Social Fund Maternity Grant Amendment Regulations 2011 (SI 2011/100): see the Committee’s 20th report.
See also our recent story ‘Prime time for charities in work programme’.
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