"Payments of Benefits to Unemployed People" (Hansard, 30 July 1981)

§ Mr. Prior

The three major proposals in the report were that registration for employment at a jobcentre should no longer be a pre-condition of entitlement to benefit; that administration of unemployment benefit and supplementary benefit for unemployed people should be centred on one office; and that abuse of the benefit system should be measured and more resources devoted to combating it. The report was published on 20 March and comments invited. Some 70 organisations and individuals responded, most of them concentrating on the three main proposals.

As far as making registration for employment voluntary is concerned, comments have varied widely between those who oppose it, generally on the ground that it may reduce the help given to unemployed people, including those who are disabled. Concern has been expressed that the need in present circumstances for controls against possible abuse of benefits should not be exaggerated and the positive role of the public employment service be given insufficient emphasis.

In the light of these varied comments, the Government have decided to accept the recommendation that for those aged 18 and over registration for employment should no longer be a condition for receipt of unemployment and supplementary benefits. Legislation will be introduced with the aim of implementing the recommendations in October 1982. The Government consider that this change will bring advantages both for the employment service and for unemployed people, while at the same time making useful economies through the elimination of unnecessary procedures.

The Government have also decided to accept the recommendation that, as part of the move to voluntary registration, there should be a test of availability in benefit offices when a claim is first made and amendment of the rules on restricted availability. The precise changes to these latter rules have still to be decided and proposals will be put to the social security advisory committee in due course.

On further consideration, the Government have decided to increase the number of unemployment review officers in the Department of Health and Social Security by 50, instead of the 300 recommended in the report, and to allocate 250 staff to the public employment service to provide additional help to longer-term unemployed people in finding jobs, working in co-operation with the UROs.

As regards unemployed disabled people, the Government intend, under voluntary registration, to give them particular encouragement to use the services available to them in jobcentres publicising these services fully at both unemployment benefit and social security offices.

The consultations have reflected widespread agreement with the principle that unemployed people should have to deal with only one office for their benefits, but some concern that, while unemployment benefit offices are the appropriate contact point for unemployed people, 474W assessment of supplementary benefit for unemployed people should remain in DHSS offices linked to the main social security system. In their initial response to the report, the Government accepted the principle of the recommendation, but set in hand further work to see how this principle might best be achieved. The results of this further work are now being considered and the Government's decision will be made known as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the Government will be going ahead with a number of procedural changes which, while they would be achieved as part of the one office proposal, could also be made independently.

The comments have tended to reflect the Government's own doubts about the statistical accuracy of the report's estimate of the level of benefit fraud and to agree on the need for more soundly based estimates. At the same time these is concern that genuine claimants—the vast majority—should not suffer. The Government have carefully considered, in the light of the comments made, how best to obtain more soundly based estimates of the level of benefit fraud and have concluded that it would be wrong to investigate for this purpose unemployed people where there is no cause for suspicion. Investigations under the exercise will therefore concentrate on cases where the papers held by the Department of Employment or the Department of Health and Social Security give some grounds for thinking that the claim could be fraudulent. Full details of the exercise have still to be worked out.

As regards the report's recommendation that more staff should be engaged in special reviews of cases in areas of high fraud risk, 30 additional staff will be employed on this work in the Department of Employment as a first step. In the Department of Health and Social Security some 150 existing fraud specialists will be redeployed to this work.

Some recommendations in the report require further study, taking account of the comments. There are, however, many procedural changes with which progress can be made, and the Government intend to move on these as quickly as possible. Overall, the change to voluntary registration and the procedural recommendations in the report which the Government have already decided to implement will lead to staff savings of around 1,650, representing an annual saving of some £13 million. In addition, the procedural changes which the Government are pursuing independently of the one office proposal could, depending on the outcome of further work, save about an additional 2,000 staff, representing an annual saving of £15 million.