The green paper is available as a.pdf document from the links at the end of the article. The Government's objectives for the Act, as stated in the green paper were to:
Reach 80% employment amongst all people of working age.
To reduce the numbers claiming incapacity benefit by 1 million. This was later stated to be achieved "within a decade"
To help 300,000 lone parents back into work.
To increase the number of older workers, aged fifty or over, in work by 1 million.
Provisions, aims and criticisms of the Act
The Act is wide-ranging and affects a large swathe of the population, particularly those dependent on housing benefit and those suffering from physical and mental ill health and disability.
Changes to provision of Housing Benefit
The Local Housing Allowance method of assessing benefit will be applied across the de-regulated private rented sector nationwide. Currently housing benefit is sent directly to landlords, not the tenants. The Act will change this so that rent money is paid to the tenant who will then be expected to pay this to the landlord. One of the stated motivations for this change is that it will give tenants an appreciation of the sums involved in their benefit claims and this will foster greater social responsibility. Criticism of this change has focused on vulnerable people such as drug addicted people and those with mental health problems. The Act also introduces a housing benefit sanction for those who are found guilty of anti-social behaviour; benefit can be withdrawn and/or the tenants can be evicted.
The Act replaces Incapacity Benefit with a new benefit, Employment and Support Allowance. The new benefit will require that regular effort is made by claimants to seek work or take part in work-related assessments and regularly meet with an advisor. Those failing to do so may see a reduction of their benefit. The medicals carried out to see who is eligible for the benefit will be made more stringent. Criticism of the changes has been broad. Charities working with vulnerable people have welcomed the Government's pledge to assist the disabled into work but are concerned that there is a lack of funding for this support and that, in the end, there will be more coercion than help. Critics are broadly in agreement that employers remain very wary of taking on disabled or mentally ill people and much more needs to be done to change this.
Older people and single mothers
The stated aims of the legislation were to increase the numbers of older people and single mothers in employment - two groups that face particular difficulties in returning to work.
Parliamentary documents and debates timeline
Structure
The links in this section include only primary documents relating to the debate within Parliament. ''They are carefully laid out in the following manner; they are firstly ordered chronologically and then bulleted according to document type:
Headings
*Hansard transcriptions of debates.
**Parliamentary briefing documents and other primary sources.
***The assembly debates the motion "That this Assembly expresses deep concern about the implications of the Welfare Reform Bill, particularly the introduction of a new coercive regime into benefit administration, and its impact on a number of vulnerable groups, including neurological patients." The motion passes.
*"a shocking failure of the British body politic, a failure of courage and realism. And it continues to be profoundly damaging to the character of British society."
*"those who brandish carrots and sticks and hair-clippers must understand that often their enemy is a fatalistic state of mind which, though unhelpful, is explicable."
