§ Mr. Harold Walkerasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will estimate the number of educational courses that might be terminated as a consequence of the recent restrictions placed on the eligibility of unemployed part-time students for supplementary benefit.
§ Mr. William SheltonSufficient information is not held centrally which would enable any assessment to be made of the effect on educational courses of the revised interpretation of the Supplementary Benefit (Conditions of Entitlement) Regulations.
The Department is supporting a research project that will enable us to identify the nature of the use being made of the concession by educational institutions and could help us to define more clearly the most educationally beneficial ways in which such institutions could take advantage of the valuable principle which lies behind the concession, namely, that the unemployed and those not in full-time education should be enabled to make creative use of their time whilst seeking work.