The Department of Work and Pension's (DWP) new law to force more benefit sanctions has been branded as "unjustified" by a key committee.
The crackdown was passed on February 8 as part of the "Way to Work" target to help 500,000 Universal Credit claimants into work by June. Under the new law, jobseekers could face sanctions if they refuse to take a job four weeks after starting their claim.
This is down from three months and was passed as an emergency law so there was not a vote by MPs - and it did not have to be approved by the Social Security Advisory Committee - as Mirror Online reports.
READ MORE: DWP: PIP payment dates to change for many next month
However, the House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee blasted the use of emergency powers as "unjustified". The Committee brought the law to the “special attention” of the Lords in a rare move, and called on the DWP to report to Parliament on whether if it’s hit the target.
The committee said: “Extensive additional evidence still left us with the view that the target is aspirational, its delivery not yet fully thought through, and the Department’s ability to say whether its target has been achieved somewhat uncertain.”
It said the DWP was unable to explain how it will meet the target or how it will measure it - including whether people taking part-time jobs will still count as an entire job. The new rules have been branded “ridiculous” as they could force people to stage hasty career changes with commutes of up to three hours a day.
The DWP said a claimant would have to take up a job offer even if it was a 90 minute commute each way to work, or be sanctioned.
SNP MP David Linden said last month: “Norman Tebbit callously told people to ‘get on their bike’ to look for work when there was mass unemployment under the Tories in the 1980s.
“This ridiculous rule is taking up the Tebbit mantra and forcing people to go miles further or face having their benefits cut.”
A DWP spokesperson previously said the 90-minute rule has not changed with the introduction of Way to Work.
They added: “Work coaches take an individual’s circumstances and capability into consideration when setting commitments, ensuring they are realistic and achievable.”
Charities have warned the “forceful approach” could “create huge amounts of anxiety and stress”. There are also questions about the exact nature of the target.
When Boris Johnson announced the scheme he said: “We are launching a plan to get half a million people off welfare and into work.”
But despite the PM’s boast, it’s thought the plan is only to get 500,000 people into jobs - not off Universal Credit. Millions of Universal Credit claimants also have a job, but it doesn’t pay enough for them to come fully out of the welfare system.
Labour peer Lord Rowlands, a member of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee said: “We remain unconvinced that emergency legislation was necessary which, as a consequence, curtailed proper parliamentary scrutiny of a measure that affects the rights of hundreds of thousands of claimants.
“We also remain concerned that the implementation of the plan did not take into account the regional differences in job vacancies.”
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