Welfare Reform Act passes into law

The Welfare Reform Act that's been trundling through Parliament for the past year or two finally made it into law last week, accompanied by a distinct lack of press coverage. The text of the act is available here, but it's difficult to translate out of legalese and into English.

Based on what press coverage there was of the bill, the only major change has been the dropping of plans to mandate drug users to undergo treatment for their addictions. An attempt by the Conservatives to remove conditionality for parents with young children failed, although they've previously promised not to enforce the new provisions.

Strangely, the only references to new contracts I could find in the Act were to Work for Your Benefit, plus the ability to delegate mandating powers to external organisations. Previous stages of the reform outlined Flexible New Deal, Invest to Save and the Personalised Employment Programme, but none of them are even mentioned by name in the text.

For details of what's in the Act, the options are the full text, a summary on the Parliament website, our own summary of the white paper, or the DWP press office's description below:

• It set outs a framework which will see virtually everyone on benefits on a journey back to work unless they are carers, severely disabled or have very young children. Helping people into employment is the best way to lift families out of poverty.
• Lone parents with younger children will be given the flexibility they need to prepare for work in the future and move closer to the job market. There will be no requirements where the youngest child is under one; until age three the requirement will be to attend a periodic interview at the jobcentre; from three to six there will be a requirement - piloted first - to take part in training or other preparatory activities that fit within available childcare; and from seven there will be a requirement to look for work, but limited to school hours until the youngest child leaves primary school
• People who have been unemployed long-term will be required to take part in Work for Your Benefits, a programme of full-time work experience with additional employment support
• Pilot an approach in which problem heroin and crack cocaine users on JSA and ESA will, in order to receive their benefit, be required to sign up to a drug rehabilitation plan outlining how they will engage with the support available to help them overcome their dependency
• Trailblazer areas will test a new right for disabled people to control how public resources are used to meet their needs
• To reinforce the rights of both children and parents, child maintenance enforcement powers will be enhanced, and in England and Wales both parents will be required to register the birth of a child

reproduced under Crown copyright