Mandatory work experience schemes branded unlawful

Last year, 24-year-old Cait Reilly lost a judicial review over a mandatory work experience scheme in which she was forced to leave her internship at a museum in order to carry out unpaid work experience at Poundland.

But the Court of Appeal has now ruled that the government’s back-to-work schemes are in fact unlawful, because the regulations underpinning the schemes were never agreed by MPs in parliament.

Tessa Gregory, the solicitor who represented Reilly at Public Interest Lawyers, said the judgment sends Welfare Secretary Iain Duncan Smith “back to the drawing board” on his mandatory work schemes.

“All of those who have been stripped of their benefits have a right to claim the money back that has been unlawfully taken away from them from the Department for Work and Pensions,” she said.

“The case has revealed that the DWP was going behind parliament’s back and failing to obtain parliamentary approval for the various mandatory work schemes that it was introducing.

“It also reveals a lack of transparency and fairness in the implementation of these schemes. The claimants had no information about what could be required of them under the back-to-work schemes.

“The Court of Appeal has affirmed the basic constitutional principle that everyone has a right to know and understand why sanctions are being the threatened and imposed against them.”

Reilly said she was delighted with the judgment. “I brought this case because I knew it was wrong when I was prevented from doing my voluntary work in a museum and forced to work in Poundland for free for two weeks as part of a scheme known as the sector-based work academy,” she said.

“Those two weeks were a complete waste of my time as the experience did not help me get a job, I wasn’t given any training and I was left with no time to do my voluntary work or search for other jobs. The only beneficiary was Poundland, a multi-million pound company. Later I found out that I should never have been told the placement was compulsory.

“I hope the government will now take this opportunity to rethink its strategy and do something which actually builds on young unemployed peoples' skills and tackles the causes of long-term unemployment. I agree we need to get people back to work but the best way of doing that is by helping them, not punishing them.

“The government ought to understand that if they created schemes which actually helped people get back into work then they wouldn’t need to force people to attend.”

Minister for employment Mark Hoban said the government would be appealing the court’s decision over the regulations underpinning its work schemes. He added that the DWP would be coming up with new regulations to allow mandatory work schemes to continue.

“We do not agree with the court's judgment and are seeking permission to appeal, but new regulations will be tabled to avoid any uncertainty,” he said.