HC Deb 04 February 1997 vol 289 cc557-8W
Mr. Alan Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what benefit sanctions can be imposed on an unemployment claimant if he(a) does not apply for a part-time job of less than 24 hours per week if a jobseeker's direction is issued instructing him to make this type of application and (b) does not accept the offer of a part-time job of less than 24 hours per week from the Employment Service; which jobseeker's allowance regulations provide the basis for these sanctions; and if she will make a statement. [14243]

Mr. Forth

Section 19 of the Jobseekers Act 1995 provides that jobseekers are subject to a benefit sanction if they refuse or fail, without good cause, to carry out a reasonable jobseeker's direction. A direction must be given in writing by an employment officer with a view to assisting the jobseeker to find employment or improving his prospects of being employed. Regulation 69 of the Jobseeker's Allowance Regulations 1996 provides that the sanction in these circumstances is loss of benefit for two weeks, or four weeks if a separate fixed-length sanction has already been imposed within the previous 12 months.

Section 19 of the Act also provides that jobseekers are subject to a benefit sanction of up to 26 weeks if they refuse, without good cause, to apply for or accept an employment opportunity notified to them by an employment officer. Regulation 72(5)(c) provides they have good cause for refusing jobs of less than 24 hours a week. A short fixed-length sanction can therefore be imposed for an unreasonable failure to act on a direction to apply for a particular job of less than 24 hours, but a further sanction of up to 26 weeks cannot be imposed for a refusal to accept the same job.

The guidance issued to Employment Service jobcentres stresses that staff should be particularly careful before giving a jobseeker's direction in respect of a job of less than 24 hours a week. Jobseekers should be directed to apply for such jobs only if this would improve their prospects of finding further work, or the job is sufficiently well paid to enable them to leave JSA altogether.