§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what revised guidelines he has issued concerning the payment of supplementary benefit to unemployed teenagers who are attending part-time education designed to increase their qualifications; what changes these guidelines represent; if he will publish them in the Official Report; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. RossiRegulation 7 of the Supplementary Benefit (Conditions of Entitlement) Regulations 1981 allows unemployed people who undertake an education or training course to receive supplementary benefit in certain circumstances. The course must be for not more than 21 hours a week and the claimant must be prepared to terminate the course immediately if a suitable vacancy becomes available to him. The aim of this provision is to encourage unemployed people to spend their time usefully. The supplementary benefits scheme is not intended to provide education support as such. The general rule is that teenagers in non-advanced education are treated as dependent upon their parents, who are entitled to child benefit and, where relevant, one parent benefit in respect of them. Depending on their circumstances, the parents may also receive family income supplement, dependency additions and educational maintenance allowances.
It is for the chief supplementary benefits officer, not my right hon. Friend, to issue guidance to supplementary benefit officers on the interpretation of the regulations. He is shortly to issue revised guidance on this regulation, and I shall arrange for a copy to be placed in the Library. I understand that the only substantial change in the guidance will be on the interpretation of the reference to 21 hours in the regulation. As my hon. Friend explained to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Perry Barr (Mr. Rooker) on 29 January—[Vol. 16, c. 451]—supplementary benefit officers will be advised to interpret this period as including all the time spent on the course, that is, hours of attendance at the establishment, including lunch breaks, project work and private study. The chief supplementary benefit officer's earlier advice was that these elements should be excluded from the 21 hours; this had the effect of bringing a number of sixth form 0 or A-level students within the scope of the regulations. This chief supplementary benefit officer has already, in advance of issuing his formal guidance, promulgated his new advice in response to queries from individual regional supplementary benefit officers.
As my hon. Friend told the House in reply to the earlier question, we are keeping the detailed provisions of these regulations under review.