HL Deb 22 June 1992 vol 538 c23WA
Earl Russell

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to the Answer by the Secretary of State for Employment in the House of Commons on 9th June (col. 131) "I accept that there is some waiting for places" on Youth Training Schemes, they will give 16 and 17 year-olds a statutory right to income support under the severe hardship provision during such periods of waiting.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Social Security (Lord Henley)

We have no plans to do so. The severe hardship provision caters for a multiplicity of special circumstances too wide in scope to be properly defined in legislation. The judgment of officers trained to use discretion within a general legal framework is a more equitable method of identifying where severe hardship exists. Legislating to provide automatic rights to income support would inevitably exclude some who are entitled under the present arrangements.