§ Mr. FitzpatrickTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what provisions he has made to allow hardship payments of Jobseeker's Allowance to be paid to a third party. [108107]
§ Angela EagleThe provision that enables all or part of a person's benefit to be paid to a third party, where it is in the interests of the claimant or a member of his family to do so, has been a long standing feature of the Social Security system.
An anomaly in the Jobseekers Act 1995 prevented this provision from applying to hardship payments of Jobseeker's Allowance. This restriction has now been removed by Part V of Schedule 8 to the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999, which came into force on 11 November 1999.