§ Mr. RooneyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if a claimant issued with jobseeker's direction to attend an employment or training programme will suffer benefit sanction if(a) he leaves the programme early and (b) is asked to leave by reason of misconduct. [27104]
§ Mr. Forth[holding answer 29 April 1996]: The only employment programmes and training schemes in connection with which claimants will normally receive a benefit sanction if they leave early without good cause or as a result of misconduct will be those prescribed for the purposes of section 19 of the Jobseeekers Act 1995. These are jobplan workshops, 1–2–1, workwise, restart courses and, in two pilot areas, project work. However, it may on occasion be appropriate to give an individual a jobseeker's direction to take up a place on a non-prescribed programme to which sanctions will not normally be applicable. Such a direction would be given only if it were reasonable in the jobseeker's circumstances, if it were given with a view to assisting him to find employment or improving his prospects of being employed, and if other prescribed employment programmes and training programmes were not appropriate. Whether such a claimant received a benefit sanction if he left the programme early or through misconduct, having been directed to attend, would depend on the specific terms of the direction.