Clause 9
Welfare Reform Bill
4:30 pm
Jeremy Hunt (Shadow Minister (the Disabled), Work & Pensions; South West Surrey, Conservative)
I would indeed like to reflect on the last point that the Minister made. I am still concerned that there is no primary legislative right for people in the support group to apply for the package of support offered under the work-related activity programme. I am grateful to him for responding at some length both to the points that I made in my speech and to the interventions that were made. I am still very concerned that the Minister and the Government have not appreciated the full purpose of my amendment, which is to ensure that the end point of any programme offered is the possibility of steps towards full-time employment, and not just full-time employment itself.
I am concerned that the programmes, as currently designed in the pathways pilots, will tend to favour those on the work-related activity programme, for which people in the support element can volunteer, should they so choose, but that the programmes might not necessarily be designed for them. That is the substance of my concern. Will the Minister respond to that? If he does not, I am afraid that I shall press the amendment to a vote.