Citation and commencement
1. These Regulations may be cited as the Jobseeker’s Allowance (Amendment) (New Deal) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998 and shall come into operation on the day after the day on which they are made.
Full-time students undertaking a qualifying course
2.—(1) Regulation 17A of the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996(1) (further circumstances in which a person is to be treated as available: full-time students participating in a qualifying course) shall be amended in accordance with paragraphs (2) to (5).
(2) In paragraph (2)(b) at the beginning there shall be inserted “subject to paragraph (2A),”.
(3) After paragraph (2) there shall be inserted the following paragraph—
“(2A) A person who has been receiving benefit in accordance with paragraph (b) of the definition of “receiving benefit” in paragraph (7)(2) shall, for the purposes of paragraph (2)(b), be treated as having received benefit within a jobseeking period.”.
(4) In the definition of “benefit” in paragraph (7), for the words from “receiving benefit” (in the second place where those words occur) to the end there shall be substituted—
“receiving—
(a)benefit which that person has claimed and received as an unemployed person or in accordance with Part II of the Order, or
(b)income support which that person has claimed and received as an asylum seeker pursuant to regulation 70(3A) of the Income Support Regulations(3) but only to the extent that—
(i)any periods in respect of which he was in receipt of income support as an asylum seeker pursuant to regulation 70(3A) of the Income Support Regulations link with the jobseeking period which includes the date on which he started, or is due to start, the qualifying course and for this purpose, such periods shall link where they are separated by a period of 12 weeks or less in respect of which he was not in receipt of income support, and
(ii)he is, at the date he started, or is due to start, the qualifying course, a person to whom paragraph (7A) applies;”.
(5) After paragraph (7), there shall be inserted the following paragraphs—
“(7A) Subject to paragraph (7B), this paragraph shall apply in the case of a person—
(a)who—
(i)is a refugee within the definition of Article 1 of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees done at Geneva on 28th July 1951(4), as extended by Article 1(2) of the Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees done at New York on 31st January 1967(5), or
(ii)has been granted exceptional leave(6)—
(aa)to enter the United Kingdom by an immigration officer appointed for the purposes of the immigration Act 1971(7), or
(bb)to remain in the United Kingdom by the Secretary of State, and
(b)who was in receipt of income support as an asylum seeker pursuant to regulation 70(3A) of the Income Support Regulations at any time during the period of 12 weeks immediately preceding the beginning of the jobseeking period which includes the date on which he started, or is due to start, the qualifying course.
(7B) Paragraph (7A) shall include a person who has been recorded as a refugee by the Secretary of State within the definition in sub-paragraph (a) of that paragraph and whose claim for income support was determined in accordance with regulation 21A(8)(2) or (3) of the Income Support Regulations (treatment of refugees).”.
Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of Health and Social Services on
L.S.
John O'Neill
Assistant Secretary
24th November 1998.