Back-To-Work Schemes 'Legally Flawed'

The Government's back-to-work schemes, under which people on benefits work for free, are legally flawed, the Supreme Court has ruled.

Judges upheld an earlier ruling which found that 2011 regulations underpinning the schemes, which have been criticised as "slave labour", were invalid.

The legal battle focused on several cases including graduate Cait Reilly who had been made to work for two weeks cleaning and stacking shelves in a Poundland store in Kings Heath, Birmingham.

The 24-year-old graduate said she gained nothing from the fortnight and felt as though she was simply giving her labour for free.

The other case was that of 40-year-old unemployed HGV driver Jamieson Wilson, from Nottingham, who had to do unpaid work cleaning furniture and was stripped of his jobseeker's allowance for six months.

The Supreme Court dismissed Secretary of State Iain Duncan Smith's appeal on the issue of the legality of the back-to-work schemes, holding that the regulations were "invalid" as they did not give sufficiently detailed "prescribed description" of the schemes.

It also held that the Secretary of State had failed to provide sufficient information about the schemes to Ms Reilly and Mr Wilson.

Iain Duncan Smith is pleased with the ruling on 'slave labour'

However, the judges ruled that regulations did not constitute forced or compulsory labour, leaving both sides claiming victory.

Following the judgment Ms Reilly, who said she had been unfairly labelled a 'job snob' for challenging the scheme, said: "I am really pleased with today's judgment, which I hope will serve to improve the current system and assist jobseekers who have been unfairly stripped of their benefits.

"I brought these proceedings because I knew that there was something wrong when I was stopped from doing voluntary work in a local museum and instead forced to work for Poundland for free.

"I have been fortunate enough to find work in a supermarket but I know how difficult it can be. It must be time for the Government to rethink its strategy and actually do something constructive to help lift people out of unemployment and poverty."

In February, Court of Appeal judges unanimously agreed the 2011 "work for your benefits" regulations failed to give the unemployed enough information, especially about the sanctions for refusing jobs under the schemes.

Lawyers said that the ruling meant that all those who had their jobseeker's allowance withdrawn for failing to comply with the back-to-work scheme were entitled to reclaim their allowance.

The Government appealed to the Supreme Court and then fast-tracked the Jobseekers (Back-to-Work Schemes) Act retrospectively through parliament.

Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) said the Government aim was to retrospectively "make lawful what the appeal court declared unlawful" in order to avoid a multimillion-pound bill in pay-outs to individuals who had been unlawfully sanctioned.

Solicitor Tessa Gregory, from Public Interest Lawyers, was at the Supreme Court with Ms Reilly and expressed their "delight" at the court's ruling in relation to the legality of the 2011 regulations.

Responding to the ruling, Mr Duncan Smith said: "We are very pleased that the Supreme Court today unanimously upheld our right to require those claiming jobseeker's allowance to take part in programmes which will help get them into work.

"We have always said that it was ridiculous to say that our schemes amounted to forced labour, and yet again we have won this argument.

"Ultimately this judgment confirms that it is right that we expect people to take getting into work seriously if they want to claim benefits."

On Tuesday, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt lost his appeal against a Court of Appeal ruling, which found he had no power to announce cuts to A&E and maternity services at Lewisham Hospital.

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