§ Mr. WhiteTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what arrangements he is making for introducing the new linking rule for incapacity benefits and abolishing the 16 hour restriction on unpaid voluntary work. [54884]
§ Mr. DenhamThe Government have a fourfold strategy for helping disabled people who want to work. We are providing the active help and encouragement people with disabilities need to move into work under the New Deal for Disabled People; removing obstacles to work from the benefits system; making sure that work pays; and promoting radical change in the workplace to ensure equality and opportunity.
We intend that the regulations introducing the new 52 week linking rule, and removing the 16 hour restriction on unpaid voluntary work, will be made in late August or early September, and will come into force from 5 October 1998 as announced in the Budget and our Green Paper "New ambitions for our country: A New Contract For Welfare" (Cm 3805). These regulations will help to remove some of the risks disabled people face from a return to work and reclaiming benefit.
The new linking rule will provide a period of 52 weeks following a return to work in which periods of entitlement to benefit on the grounds of incapacity can be linked. The rule will apply to people who leave benefit voluntarily having been incapable of work for at least 28 weeks.
The linking rule will protect a person's access to a number of the longer-term benefit rates that are payable to people who are incapable of work—for example: the short-term (higher) and long-term rates of incapacity benefit; Severe Disablement Allowance; access to the Disability Premium payable in Income Support/Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit; and Income Support mortgage interest payments. The rules will also give protection to Income Support and Jobseeker' s Allowance claimants who have a partner who leaves an incapacity benefit (or NI credits awarded on grounds of incapacity) to return to work and whose benefit ceases as a consequence. In addition transitional protection in Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit will also be protected for those who reclaim in the 52 week period.
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Minister Date Place visited Purpose Accompanied by Frank Field February 1998 Athens Pensions seminar Private Secretary Keith Bradley February 1998 Vienna Minister for Labour, Health and Social Affairs Private Secretary and one official Joan Ruddock March 1998 New York Commission of the Status of Women Private Secretary Keith Bradley March 1998 USA Welfare to work projects Private Secretary and one official This offers reassurance that if disabled people make the move from benefits into work and reclaim benefit they will not have to requalify for higher rates of benefits payable on grounds of incapacity, as they do now.
§ Mr. OatenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what would be the estimated cost to his Department of raising the earnings disregard for people on long-term incapacity benefit to(a) £20 and (b) £25. [53817]
§ Mr. DenhamThere is no current earnings disregard for people receiving Incapacity Benefit. Recipients cannot normally do any work unless it qualifies under special rules permitting a certain amount of therapeutic or voluntary work. The Government announced in the Green Paper "New Ambitions For Our Country: A New Contract For Welfare" proposals to pilot changes to benefits to remove barriers faced by disabled people who want to work. The proposals included allowing people receiving Incapacity Benefit to do a small amount of paid work, subject to a weekly limit of £15, although the precise level has still to be finalised. The expenditure consequences of such a change will depend on the effect it has on the numbers of people leaving or staying on benefit. Information on which to base an estimate is not currently available, but will be provided by the pilots.