§ Earl Russellasked Her Majesty's Government:
How they monitor the effect of the 40 per cent. deduction from income support for voluntary unemployment.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Social Security (Baroness Hollis of Heigham)Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) replaced income support for the unemployed on 7 October 1996. We are collecting a range of statistical data on the numbers affected by the sanction rules in JSA. Understanding the impact of sanctions will also form part of our wider programme of monitoring and evaluation to ensure that JSA is contributing to our welfare to work objectives, which are to provide work incentives, to reduce poverty and welfare dependency, and to strike a new balance between rights and responsibilities.
As part of the evaluation of JSA, the DSS/BA and DfEE/ES have jointly commissioned a major national survey of unemployed claimants before and after the introduction of JSA. A first report on the pre-JSA survey has been published (DSS Research Series No. 62, Unemployment and Jobseeking). A second report is due to be published in the autumn. Both reports provide information about claimants who were disqualified or disallowed benefit.
In addition, these quantitative surveys are being supplemented to qualitative research, again before and after the introduction of JSA. One strand of this work specifically investigates claimants' understanding of and attitudes towards disallowances and sanctions and the impact on behaviour among jobseekers who have experienced sanctions. We expect to publish the pre-JSA research shortly.