Clause 8
Welfare Reform Bill
10:15 am
Natascha Engel (North East Derbyshire, Labour)
I understand that the hon. Gentleman is to visit the Derbyshire pathways to work programme in my constituency. It has been fantastic. He will hear some stories that the Select Committee, and myself as a constituency MP, have heard. The staggering part about the individual human stories that he has discussed is the shift from a tick-box medical assessment of what cannot be done to a more employer-based, support and training-oriented capability assessment. That is exactly what the Bill is about: to ensure that we focus on the job that a person can do, get them job-ready through condition-management programmes, and give them the skills that employers need. The assessment is outside work, but it faces work. That is the crucial difference.