Clause 9
Welfare Reform Bill
12:00 pm
Jim Murphy (Minister of State (Work), Department for Work and Pensions; East Renfrewshire, Labour)
We are suggesting all sorts of flexibilities in the draft regulations, but we do not wish to be prescriptive and to say, “This is the exhaustive list.” I am not sure that this will enlighten my hon. Friend, but some of the provisions are taken from paragraph 35 of the current decision makers guide, and, even there, the list is not exhaustive. The guide refers to what constitutes a good cause for not meeting some of the conditionality in terms of, for example, medical appointments, caring responsibilities and religious adherence.
On the specific point about someone who has attempted suicide, my hon. Friend will accept that people attempt that dramatic act for all sorts of reasons, including low esteem and a sense of worthlessness. Although he is not suggesting this, others have suggested that we automatically passport into a support group everyone who has attempted suicide for whatever reason. Such people would not automatically be entitled to condition management, work-focused interviews and the chance to get closer to the labour market again. The Government have a sense that that is not the right way to support someone in those circumstances.
When the work-focused interview and work-related activity would add to the complications and the pressure that a person felt, there would of course be a deferral. However, it would be wrong to say that we should put everyone into the support group, regardless of the reason why they had attempted suicide, and particularly when the pressure on a person had built up because of long-term unemployment, material poverty, their perception of their wider role in the world and of their inability to support themselves and their family, and their sense of worthlessness. In cases where it would help, we need to afford such people the support of work-focused interviews to try to get them back to the labour market. In cases where it would not help, there would be a deferral, and we would not seek at any point to add to the difficulties that somebody already faced.