§ Lord Aveburyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether monks and nuns of any faith are entitled to claim benefits of any kind; whether any of them do so, and if so, what type of benefits they claim; whether lay residents at religious establishments, who may be required to participate in religious observances, are considered to be available for work; and what checks are made by the employment service on the daily activities of any such persons who are claiming benefits.
§ The Minister of State, Department of Social Security (Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish)Generally speaking, monks and nuns may claim social security benefits under the same conditions as other claimants. However, entitlement to income support, income-based jobseeker's allowance and housing benefit only arises where they are not fully maintained by their order. Lay residents are treated no differently from other claimants. People who live in religious establishments are not separately identified in the collection of statistical information on benefit claimants, so it is not possible to say how many monks and nuns claim benefits of whatever kind.
Residents at religious establishments who claim contributory jobseeker's allowance or income-based jobseeker's allowance because they are not fully maintained by the order must satisfy the same rules as other people. They must seek work actively each week, and must normally be available for at least 40 hours a week. If they wish to exclude certain times of the week from their "pattern of availability" for any reason, they 46WA must be able to show that they nevertheless retain reasonable prospects of securing employment, and that their prospects are not considerably reduced by the restriction. Each claimant's pattern of availability is recorded in his or her jobseeker's agreement, and the employment service interviews jobseekers regularly to check that they continue to comply with the benefit conditions.