§ Mr. Dudley Smithasked the Secretary of State for Employment (1) from which areas his Department has received reports that some unemployed people are refusing to take work offered them because the wage offered was less than £120 a week; and if he will make a statement;
(2) what surveys the Manpower Services Commission is undertaking of the numbers of people in different areas who are allegedly refusing the offer of work because the pay does not exceed £100 a week;
(3) which towns in Great Britain have been earmarked for special investigation by officials because of suspicions that people drawing unemployment benefit are refusing work because they consider the pay not to be high enough.
§ Mr. AlisonMy Department has received no reports that some unemployed people are refusing to take work because the wage offered was less than 120 per week, nor is the Manpower Services Commission undertaking any surveys into the number of people refusing an offer of342W work because the pay does not exceed £100 per week. No towns have been earmarked for special investigation for people refusing work because they consider the pay too low.
Social security legislation provides that anyone who refuses, without good cause, a suitable job can be disqualified from receiving benefit for up to six weeks. The legislation does not define "suitable", and people are disqualified for refusing jobs with wages considerably less than £100. In the 12 months from January-December 1980 approximately 9,000 disqualifications for refusing suitable work were imposed.
From October 1982 registration for employment at jobcentres will be voluntary and the testing of a person's availability for work will become the responsibility of the benefit authorities. This is a considerable administrative change which will need testing, and so from January 1982 an initial availability test will be piloted in 15 selected offices. This test will involve asking all new claimants, at the beginning of their claim, whether they would take any full-time job they can do. If they reply "No" they will be required to complete a fuller questionnaire designed to find out whether the restrictions, for example, hours, pay, they are putting on the work they would take, are reasonable. Cases which appear unreasonable will be referred to the independent adjudicating authorities who decide all questions of entitlement.