§ Mr. PickthallTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how much time an unemployed person is granted for bereavements, without being discounted as available for work.
§ Miss WiddecombeResponsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service Agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from M. E. G. Fogden to Mr. Colin Pickthall, dated 14 March 1995:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the amount of time an unemployed person is granted for bereavements, without being discounted as available for work.It may help if I explain that the receipt of unemployment benefit, National Insurance contribution credits and income support when unemployed, is conditional upon a person being available for and actively seeking work. This means that the individual must be available to start work immediately; must not place such restrictions on the work they are willing to do as to leave them with no real prospects of finding a job; and must take those steps each week that offer them their best prospects of being offered work.Availability is a daily condition which means that the client must be available to do some work on every day of claim, usually Monday to Saturday.If a client declares to my people in local offices that they are not available for work for any day(s), Social Security regulations provide for their claim to be referred to an independent adjudication officer for a decision about entitlement.However, my local office and section managers have some discretion in deciding whether a claim is referred or not. If a client is unable to attend on their normal signing day, or cannot attend a pre-arranged interview, because of a domestic crisis such as a bereavement, my people have discretion to treat the claim as straightforward, without reference to an adjudication officer. In such circumstances there are no time limits. I expect my people to use judgement and decide what is reasonable in the light of the circumstances of each case.I hope this is helpful.