Jobsearch Plan (Hansard, 10 February 1995)

§ Ms. Harman
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will withdraw question 18 on page 10 from the draft jobsearch plan.

§ Miss Widdecombe
No. The draft jobsearch plan has been designed to enable jobseekers to set out information to help them prepare for the discussions with an employment adviser about their jobseeker's agreement. The jobsearch plan form will ask for details of availability for work, the sort of work being sought and how the jobseeker intends to find it. Questions relating to the level of pay being sought are relevant to these matters.

§ Ms Harman
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if, in response to question 18 on page 10 of the draft jobsearch plan which requires the jobseeker to state the lowest wage that he or she is willing to work for, he would expect a person from an ethnic minority to state a lower wage rate than a white person.
Miss Widdecombe: No.

§ Ms Harman
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if, in response to question 18 on page 10 of the draft jobsearch plan which requires the jobseeker to state the lowest wage that he or she is willing to work for, he would expect women to state a lower wage rate than men.

§ Miss Widdecombe
No.

§ Mr. Byers
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is the status of the jobsearch plan under the Jobseekers Bill; and what sanctions can be imposed upon claimants if they refuse to sign the jobsearch plan.

§ Miss Widdecombe
The jobsearch plan has no status under the Jobseekers Bill. It will be used to gather information to help draw up the jobseeker's agreement. No sanctions will be imposed for not signing the plan.
Mr. Byers: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what proposals he has to introduce a minimum level for the lowest wage a person needs to 473W declare under the draft jobsearch plan under the Jobseekers Bill.

§ Miss Widdecombe
None.

§ Mr. Byers
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment at what interval the jobsearch plan will he renewed by an individual claimant under the Jobseekers Bill.

§ Miss Widdecombe
The jobsearch plan will be used to gather information to help the employment officer and jobseeker to draw up an initial jobseeker's agreement. A new jobsearch plan might in some cases be appropriate to help the employment officer and the jobseeker vary a jobseeker's agreement during a claim.

§ Mr. Byers
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment which questions contained within the jobsearch plan are at present contained in a signed document; and what is the sanction for failing to declare or making a false declaration.

§ Miss Widdecombe
Nearly all of the information which it is proposed should be gathered by the new jobsearch plan form is at present collected on forms which are signed by the claimant. The order and phrasing of some of the questions has been altered in the current draft of the plan. The section on efforts to find work, in particular, has been re-designed to help the jobseeker set out his jobsearch plans in more detail.
There will be no sanctions for failing to fill in a new jobsearch plan form. It is, however, an offence for a jobseeker to make a statement or representation he knows to be false and we propose to continue this under the jobseeker' s allowance.