§ Mr. Alfred Morrisasked the Secretary of State for Employment, pursuant to his reply to the right hon. Member for Manchester, Wythenshawe on 21 May, Official Report, column 390, if he will state (a) the conditions of entitlement to job release allowances payable for more than one year and the percentage by which the allowance for a single person was uprated in April and (b) the conditions of entitlement to job release allowances payable for less than one year and the percentage by which the allowance was uprated in April; and if he will make a further statement.
§ Mr. Alan ClarkThe conditions of entitlement to a job release allowance, whether for less than a year or more than a year, are that participants comply with all the rules of the scheme at the time they enter the scheme, that their employer undertakes to replace them with an unemployed 449W person and that for any week for which they receive the allowance they do not receive any benefit that is incompatible with the allowance nor any earnings or payments in kind in excess of £4, after deducting any necessary expenses connected with work. The taxable allowance is paid to those who at the time of entry could on the basis of their age have an entitlement to receive the allowance for over a year; the tax-free allowance to those whose entitlement to receive the allowance could, on the basis of their age, not be for more than one year.
As I announced in my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for High Peak (Mr. Hawkins) on 15 March 1985, at columns 316–17, all job release allowances would be increased with effect from 8 April 1985. The revised rates announced were such that, net of tax, those entitled to the taxable allowance would receive on average broadly the same amount as those entitled to the tax free allowance.