Personal Independence Payment and Universal Credit
Debate between Baroness Sherlock and Lord Scriven(1 week, 3 days ago)
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Baroness Sherlock (Lab)
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for his question. I have already said what we are doing, but, just for example, the Milburn review is looking at the position of young people, because almost 1 million—one in eight—of our young people are not in employment, education or training, and a growing number of those are on the grounds of sickness, disability or the inability to work. We also have a growing number of people across the age range who are simply not able to work. We need to make sure that the system supports them and gets them into work. The Milburn review will look at young people. The Timms review, by my right honourable friend Stephen Timms, is reviewing whether PIP is fit for purpose—the interim report suggests that it is not. Both reports will be coming out this month, the Government will respond soon after that and we will be legislating in the new year.
Lord Scriven (LD)
My Lords, earlier this year, the Government told me that they do not expect to identify the impact of the evidence-led decision-making trial on people with a learning disability and have no specific available evaluation to do so. Will the Minister commit that the trial will not be expanded until the impact on people with a learning disability has been measured and published?
Baroness Sherlock (Lab)
My Lords, I know the noble Lord has raised this before and that it is an issue about which he is deeply concerned. The Government look carefully in their decision-making at the impact of all the reforms on all those who use the service and who have a range of different needs. Whenever that happens, we have to look, for example, at an equality impact assessment, and we look at the impact of changes. We will continue to do that. All evaluation that is to be published will be done at the appropriate time.
Jobcentre Plus and National Careers Service: Merger
Debate between Baroness Sherlock and Lord Scriven(2 months ago)
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Baroness Sherlock (Lab)
The merger does not affect provision in schools—that remains the responsibility of the Department for Education—but I will make sure my colleagues have seen the report from the House of Lords committee and are addressing it. The merged service will be in a single place, so, for example, a work coach who meets somebody coming into a jobcentre who needs help then has the capacity to refer them directly, if that is what they most need, because the colleagues providing those services will also be working for DWP. That will make a difference. We will also be in a position to set clear performance standards and expectations across the whole of our network, so I hope that will address some of the issues the noble Lord has described.
Lord Scriven (LD)
My Lords, regardless of whether the two services merge, evidence shows that people who are providing the service for people with learning disabilities lack knowledge and training. What specific requirements will be in the new contract and service to ensure that staff are fully aware of the requirements of people with learning disabilities and are trained to meet individual needs?
Baroness Sherlock (Lab)
The noble Lord raises a very important point. I think there are two different questions. The careers advisers will continue to be careers advisers, who are appropriately qualified, and they will work closely with work coaches. The DWP has a range of support and learning for our staff to make sure they understand the range of customers and disabilities, including learning disabilities. I am quite confident that the relationship between the two will address those points, but I will look specifically at this and make sure we embed it in the guidance and training.