Member

What is affordable in those circumstances will depend on the individual’s circumstances. The Bill sets out that deductions must be fair in the circumstances and must not cause hardship or prevent the individual meeting essential living expenditure. Obviously, it is difficult to know until we engage with them what “affordable” means for them because we do not know anything about them unless we use the powers available to us to find out more about their financial circumstances. There are also a number of key safeguards in the Bill. For example, the cap for regular direct deductions is set at a maximum of 40% of average income, and regulations will prescribe a maximum of 20% for non- fraud cases in a given month over a specified period. Again, we would have made all reasonable attempts to discuss that with them.