HC Deb 15 February 1983 vol 37 c123W
38. Mr. Alexander

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he has any proposals to abolish the short term rate of supplementary benefit.

Mr. Newton

No.

Mrs Renée Short

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if, in view of the fact that social security regulations penalise Easter leavers who wish to take CSEs even though they are unemployed, he will seek to amend the regulations to allow them to claim supplementary benefit from the time they leave school instead of having to wait until September.

48. Dr David Clark

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will amend the supplementary benefit regulations so as to remove any disincentive to Easter school leavers to take CSE and other examinations.

Mr. Newton

[pursuant to his reply, 4 February, c. 217]: No. Under current regulations a school leaver becomes entitled to supplementary benefit at the end of the holidays following the term in which he completes his full time education. Throughout this period he is treated as dependent on his parents and child benefit remains payable unless he gets a job or starts a youth opportunities course.

A school pupil taking an examination course is treated for benefit purposes as being in full-time education until he has completed the examinations for which he has prepared. Neither the child benefit nor the supplementary benefit regulations draw any distinction in this respect between CSE and GCE candidates; the school pupil taking either examination during the summer term is therefore excluded from supplementary benefit until September in the usual way.

The forthcoming changes to the rules governing admission to CSE examinations are intended simply to bring them more losely into line with arrangements for GCE O levels. These changes will for the first time enable those young people who are above the minimum school leaving age and have taken up employment at Easter to return to school to sit CSE examinations for which they have been entered. There is no intention that these changes, introduced for educational reasons, should result in any change in supplementary benefit entitlement. It would indeed be wrong to encourage CSE candidates to leave school speculatively at Easter in the interests of short-term financial gain rather than attend school during the summer term to ensure that they achieve the best possible examination results.