§ 37. Mr. HammondTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what plans her Department has to guarantee that nobody will have to wait more than three days before receiving the first payment of the jobseeker's allowance. [9065]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyAs announced on 2 July, we will proceed with the previous Government's decision that the106W number of waiting days before jobseeker's allowance becomes payable will be increased from three days to seven from April 1999.
However, we also announced a change in the way claims are paid to ensure that the maximum period anyone will have to wait before benefit becomes payable is no longer than at present.
The Government believe that work is the best form of welfare for people of working age. Our welfare-to-work objectives are to provide work incentives, reduce poverty and welfare dependency and strike a new balance between responsibilities and rights. A programme of monitoring and evaluation is under way to enable us to ensure that the jobseeker's allowance contributes to achieving our objectives. We shall also keep the individual benefit rules under active consideration as we develop our welfare-to-work plans.