Employment: Universal Jobmatch

Earl of Listowel Excerpts

Tuesday 11th March 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Freud]

I do not have to hand how many prosecutions we have made, but I will of course write when I know that information.

[The Earl of Listowel (CB)]

My Lords, as more people are being encouraged into work, is the Minister aware that unidentified mental health needs are becoming more apparent? How can these people be helped to address their mental health needs so they can benefit from the services of the kind he is discussing?

[Lord Freud]

The greater intensification of the relationship between the jobcentre and claimants as a result of universal credit and the claimant commitment has begun to unpick some of the challenges and barriers that claimants face. One of those, clearly, is mental health and we are undertaking an exercise to look at how we can help such claimants. That is not easy. No one in the world has managed to achieve this. We are currently looking at doing a series of pilots to find out how best to help people with mental health problems.