§ Mr. Gerry Fowlerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what consultations he had with local education authorities, prior to his ruling that unemployed school leavers must have been out of school for six months before returning to part-time work induction courses in schools, without jeopardy to their entitlement to supplementary benefit, about the practicability of mounting courses in schools beginning six months after the Easter, spring bank holiday and summer school leaving dates.
§ Mr. Orme:The suggestion that there should be six months' unemployment 237W between a young person's leaving school and his starting a part-time course in a school—as distinct from a college of further education—was made by one local authority wishing to provide such courses. The Supplementary Benefits Commission accepted this stipulation as a reasonable way of ensuring in these cases that full-time school education was complete, since supplementary benefit is not payable in the ordinary way to people at school.
§ Mr. Gerry Fowlerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the exact meaning he attaches to the word "full" in his ruling that a local education authority's further education colleges must be full before it can mount part-time work induction courses in schools, with otherwise empty places, for unemployed school leavers without jeopardising their entitlement to supplementary benefit.
§ Mr. Orme:The Supplementary Benefits Commission accepts the local education authority's assurance on the matter.