§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on the reasons for the withdrawal of the proposal to change the definition of full-time work for unemployment benefit purposes from 24 hours to 16 hours.
§ Mr. JackThe Government proposed that the definition of employment in unemployment benefit regulations should be 16 hours per week in line with the change from April 1992 in the definition of remunerative work for income support and family credit purposes.
We received a report from the Social Security Advisory Committee and other representations about the effect of the proposed change to the regulations. Whilst the total number of disqualifications arising from the proposal would have been very small, a few people ineligible for family credit would have faced a difficult choice had disqualification been imposed for declining an offer of between 16 and 24 hours employment. Consequently we decided not to pursue the alignment of hours of work in this area.