§ Ms. Richardsonasked the Paymaster General what information is made available to employees of the Department of Health and Social Security and claimants on the availability of full-time child-care and day-care facilities for dependent adults within the area, when the new availability for work test is applied.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe provision of information about child-care and day-care facilities is a matter for the local authorities and other bodies which run them. Such information may be made available to staff and claimants at local offices of the Department of Health and Social Security or of the Department of Employment by local arrangement. We have no plans to make any changes.
We have not introduced any new test for benefit, but merely introduced a new form to help with the application of long-established rules followed by successive Governments.
A person who claims that he or she is actively seeking work and so is available for work and eligible for benefit 540W as an unemployed person must also accept some personal responsibility for making arrangements for dependants to enable that person to take up a job. If a claimant says that he or she is not able to contemplate taking work, the law and the legal rules have always provided that the claimant is not entitled to benefit as unemployed.