The Jobseekers (Northern Ireland) Order 1995

Trade disputes

Trade disputes

16.—(1) Where—

(a) there is a stoppage of work which causes a person not to be employed on any day, and

(b) the stoppage is due to a trade dispute at his place of work, that person, is not entitled to a jobseeker’s allowance for the week which includes that day unless he proves that he is not directly interested in the dispute.

(2) A person who withdraws his labour on any day in furtherance of a trade dispute, but to whom paragraph (1) does not apply, is not entitled to a jobseeker’s allowance for the week which includes that day.

(3) If a person who is prevented by paragraph (1) from being entitled to a jobseeker’s allowance proves that during the stoppage—

(a) he became bona fide employed elsewhere;

(b) his employment was terminated by reason of redundancy within the meaning of section 11(2) of the Contracts of Employment and Redundancy Payments Act (Northern Ireland) 1965(1), or

(c) he bona fide resumed employment with his employer but subsequently left for a reason other than the trade dispute, paragraph (1) shall be taken to have ceased to apply to him on the occurrence of the event referred to in sub-paragraph (a) or (b) or (as the case may be) the first event referred to in sub-paragraph (c).

(4) In this Article “place of work”, in relation to any person, means the premises or place at which he was employed.

(5) Where separate branches of work which are commonly carried on as separate businesses in separate premises or at separate places are in any case carried on in separate departments on the same premises or at the same place, each of those departments shall, for the purposes of paragraph (4), be deemed to be separate premises or (as the case may be) a separate place.

Effect on other claimants

17.—(1) Except in prescribed circumstances, paragraph (2) applies in relation to a claimant for an income-based jobseeker’s allowance where a member of his family (“A”) is, or would be, prevented by Article 16 from being entitled to a jobseeker’s allowance.

(2) For the purposes of calculating the claimant’s entitlement to an income-based jobseeker’s allowance—

(a) any portion of the applicable amount which is included in respect of A shall be disregarded for the period for which this paragraph applies to the claimant;

(b) where the claimant and A are a married or unmarried couple, any portion of the applicable amount which is included in respect of them shall be reduced to one half for the period for which this paragraph applies to the claimant;

(c) except so far as regulations provide otherwise, there shall be treated as the claimant’s income—

(i) any amount which becomes, or would on an application duly made become, available to A in relation to that period by way of repayment of income tax deducted from A’s emoluments in pursuance of section 203 of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988 (PAYE)(2); and

(ii) any other payment which the claimant or any member of his family receives or is entitled to obtain because A is without employment for that period; and

(d) any payment by way of a jobseeker’s allowance for that period or any part of it which apart from this sub-paragraph would be made to the claimant—

(i) shall not be made, if the weekly rate of payment (“the rate”) would be equal to or less than the prescribed sum; and

(ii) shall be at a weekly rate equal to the difference between the rate and the prescribed sum, if the rate would be more than the prescribed sum.

(3) Where a reduction under paragraph (2)(b) would not produce a sum which is a multiple of 5p, the reduction shall be to the nearest lower sum which is such a multiple.

(4) Where A returns to work with the same employer after a period during which paragraph (2) applied to the claimant (whether or not his return is before the end of any stoppage of work in relation to which he is, or would be, prevented from being entitled to a jobseeker’s allowance), paragraph (2) shall cease to apply to the claimant at the commencement of the day on which A returns to work.

(5) In relation to any period of less than a week, paragraph (2) shall have effect subject to such modifications as may be prescribed.

(6) Paragraphs (7) to (9) apply where an order made under section 132 of the Administration Act (annual up-rating of benefits) has the effect of increasing the sum prescribed in regulations made under Article 6(5) as the personal allowance for a single person aged not less than 25 (“the personal allowance”).

(7) For the sum prescribed in regulations made under paragraph (2)(d) there shall be substituted, from the time when the order comes into operation, a sum arrived at by increasing the prescribed sum by the percentage by which the personal allowance has been increase by the order.

(8) If the sum arrived at under paragraph (7) is not a multiple of 50p—

(a) any remainder of 25p or less shall be disregarded;

(b) any remainder of more than 25p shall be rounded up to the nearest 50p.

(9) The order shall state the sum substituted for the sum prescribed in regulations made under paragraph (2)(d).

(10) Nothing in paragraph (7) prevents the making of further regulations under paragraph (2)(d) varying the prescribed sum.

(1)

1965 c. 19.

(2)

1988 c. 1.