§ 17. Mr. BurdenTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will make a statement on the future of the mechanisms in respect of the jobseeker's allowance administered by her Department. [33214]
§ Mr. ForthThe mechanisms necessary for delivery of the jobseeker's allowance will be in place by 7 October 1996 and reviewed as necessary thereafter.
§ Mr. BurdenThe Minister is surely aware that in the first year of the jobseeker's allowance it is estimated that 90,000 people will lose all their entitlement to benefit and that about 150,000 will lose part of their entitlement. Is the Minister familiar with the term "social insurance" and, if so, what would he say about a private insurance company that collected contributions on one basis then, without asking the customer, cut the benefits? Would not 339 he urge that customer to seek the advice of a solicitor against that private insurance company operating under false pretences? Why does not he operate the same standards for his own Government?
§ Mr. ForthThe hon. Gentleman must occupy a peculiar world if he believes that every entitlement and 340 every benefit that has ever existed could never be changed in one direction or another. If he looks back at the record of the previous Labour Government, however long ago it may be now, he will find that that Government felt quite free to change entitlements, usually for the worse, for a large number of people, so I do not even understand the basis of his question.