Employment and Support Allowance Regulations 2013

Baroness Turner of Camden Excerpts

Wednesday 13th February 2013 Lords Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord Freud)]

My Lords, I can confirm that in my view the statutory instrument is compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.

As with the JSA regulations we have just considered, these provisions are designed to work alongside the introduction of universal credit by removing all the existing income-related provisions from ESA. From April 2013, the income-related elements of ESA will gradually be phased out for any cases where universal credit has been rolled out. These regulations will introduce new conditionality and sanctions regimes into ESA benefits to align them with universal credit. The ESA sanctions regime is, following reforms made last year, already significantly aligned with the UC sanctions model. However, beyond these changes, people will find that the effect of the existing employment and support allowance regime is unaltered.

Noble Lords may find it helpful if I provide more detail on how these changes will be applied. ESA is a benefit with which all noble Lords will be familiar and is payable to people on the basis that they have a disability or health condition that affects their ability to work. As with the changes that we are making to JSA, these regulations provide new claimant responsibilities and sanctions for claimants who fail to comply with the conditionality regime.

The requirements placed on ESA claimants are also based on the universal credit model. For example, where appropriate, ESA claimants can be required to prepare for work and attend work-focused interviews. These requirements are broadly equivalent to those placed on claimants in the universal credit work preparation and work-focused interview-only conditionality groups. Therefore, ESA claimants will not be required to look, or be available, for work. I should also stress that ESA claimants can be subject only to the lowest levels of sanctions. These sanctions have an open-ended element that stops building when the claimant complies, so the quicker the claimant engages the shorter the sanction will be.

The two levels of sanctions broadly work in the same way as the equivalent sanctions for universal credit claimants in the work-preparation and work-focused interview requirement groups. The high and medium-level sanctions in JSA and universal credit, which are for longer, fixed periods, do not apply to ESA claimants. Our aim is not to impose sanctions. We want claimants to comply with the reasonable requirements that will prepare them for work. Therefore our focus is on ensuring that the requirements expected of claimants are reasonable and clearly communicated to them. Only if claimants fail to meet a suitable requirement without a good reason will a sanction be imposed.

As with the JSA provisions, these regulations were subject to statutory formal consideration by the Social Security Advisory Committee. The committee decided that formal referral was not necessary, but raised a number of points, which were all considered, and changes were made where appropriate. For example, the committee questioned Regulation 46 of the ESA regulations, which originally provided that the purposes of a work-focused interview included the five things in the list. The committee questioned whether this meant that the interview had other purposes that were not included in the list. We decided that the list should be exhaustive, and therefore amended the wording of the regulation to remove the word “include”.

As the sanctions and conditionality rules for both benefits were being brought broadly into line with universal credit, both sets of regulations were included as part of the Social Security Advisory Committee’s wider UC consultation exercise. We firmly agree with the committee that the key to an effective sanctions regime is clear communication with claimants, delivered by well trained advisers. In line with assurances sought during the passage of the Act, stakeholders were keen to ensure that the sanctions regime incorporates sufficient safeguards for vulnerable claimants.

Noble Lords will know that I share concerns that the sanctions regime incorporates robust safeguards. I would like to assure noble Lords that a number of protections will be in place, for example visiting or calling claimants with a mental health condition or learning disability before a sanction is considered.

In closing, I reiterate to noble Lords that beyond the changes I have outlined, the rules for the new style ESA will be very similar to the existing rules for the contributory element of ESA. I would also like to thank the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee for its earlier consideration and analysis of these regulations. I seek noble Lords’ approval of the regulations here today, and I commend them to the House.

[Baroness Turner of Camden]

My Lords, very briefly, I wish to raise with the Minister the issue of appeals and appeals mechanisms. Where I live, I am often approached by people for advice, particularly by those on DLA. Of course, DLA will be transformed into the personal independence payment under the new system. At present, when people come to me to complain that they do not have the amount of DLA they thought they ought to have, I always advise them to appeal. I tell them what they ought to do, and I advise them to consult the local authorities and to proceed accordingly. The notable thing about appeals against DLA assessments is that 40% of them are successful. That raises a number of questions in my mind about the people who carry out the assessments.

What will happen under the new system? Will a private firm do the assessments, as happens with DLA, and how will the Government ensure that the private firm doing the assessment is capable of doing the job effectively? I have doubts about the way in which the present system operates when so many people are dissatisfied and so many people are successful at appeal. That is very unsatisfactory. From the point of view of those concerned, it makes them feel that the system works not for them but for the Government on behalf of people who want to diminish the amount of money that is spent in support of people who are on benefits.

As regards legal aid, after April that will not be available for anyone who is concerned to contest an appeal. There may be people who are very aggrieved because they are not getting the benefit assessment that they ought to have, even under the new system, but what course will they have to follow, and how can they follow it? Are the Government satisfied that the people doing the assessments are capable of doing them?