§ Mr. David NicholsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will ensure that her officials enforce the availability for work rule on benefit claimants living in trees near the Newbury bypass; and if she will make a statement. [10526]
§ Mr. ForthResponsibility 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 Mike Fogden to Mr. David Nicholson, dated 19 January 1996:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about ensuring that officials enforce the availability for work rule on benefit claimants living in trees near the Newbury by-pass.It may help if I explain that the receipt of unemployment benefits is conditional upon a person being available for and actively seeking employment. This means that they must be available to start work immediately; must not place such restrictions on the work they are willing to do which would leave them with no real prospects of finding a job and must take those steps, each week, which offer them their best prospects of obtaining work.To satisfy the actively seeking employment condition, the steps an individual is required to take in any week are those which are reasonable in their case and which offer them their best prospects of receiving offers of employment. Steps may include applying for jobs, orally or in writing, looking in appropriate newspapers, trade magazines or other publications and following up possible job opportunities and canvassing employers. For the purposes of the actively seeking employment regulation, taking one step on a single occasion in a week is not enough to satisfy the condition unless that was all it was reasonable for the individual to do in that week.The onus is on the claimant to show what steps they have taken to seek work. The legislation does not require written evidence but claimants are advised to keep records of their jobsearch to help them. Evidence can therefore be given orally or in writing and may include names and addresses of empioyers approached, copies of any written applications made and replies received, details of advertised vacancies which have been applied for, list of Jobcentres visited and job enquiries made.I can assure you that my people in Newbury Jobcentre are applying the availability and actively seeking employment conditions to all claimants, including those who are taking part in the Newbury by-pass protest. My manager at Newbury has confirmed that, as with other claimants, protesters are seen regularly to check their jobsearch and some have applied for and been submitted to vacancies on display at the Jobcentre.If there are any doubts about whether an individual satisfies the entitlement conditions their claim is referred to the independent adjudicating authorities for a decision. A number of adjudication disallowances have been obtained on claims made by protesters.