§ Mr. Wareingasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he has any plans to increase financial assistance to local authorities to enable them to provide more grants at a reasonable level to unemployed persons wishing to pursue academic courses at colleges of further education.
§ Sir Keith JosephIt is for local authorities to decide, in the light of the resources available to them, upon their level of expenditure on discretionary awards to those who are unemployed. As I said in answer to the hon. Member's question on 22 November 1983 unemployed people receiving supplementary benefit may under certain conditions study for up to 21 hours a week without losing their entitlement to benefit.