The Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations 1996

PART III OTHER CONDITIONS OF ENTITLEMENT

Waiting Days

46.—(1) Paragraph 4 of Schedule 1 to the Act shall not apply in a case where–

(a) a person’s entitlement to a jobseeker’s allowance commences within 12 weeks of an entitlement of his to income support, incapacity benefit or invalid care allowance coming to an end; or

(b) a claim for a jobseeker’s allowance falls to be determined by reference to section 3(1)(f)(ii) (persons under the age of 18).

(2) In the case of a person to whom paragraph 4 of Schedule 1 to the Act applies, the number of days is 3.

Jobseeking Period

47.—(1) For the purposes of the Act, but subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), the “jobseeking period” means any period throughout which the claimant satisfies or is treated as satisfying the conditions specified in paragraphs (a) to (c) and (e) to (i) of subsection (2) of section 1 (conditions of entitlement to a jobseeker’s allowance).

(2) Any period in which–

(a) a claimant does not satisfy any of the requirements in section 1(2)(a) to (c), and

(b) a jobseeker’s allowance is payable to him in accordance with Part IX (Hardship),

shall, for the purposes of paragraph (1), be treated as a period in which the claimant satisfies the conditions specified in paragraphs (a) to (c) of subsection (2) of section 1.

(3) The following periods shall not be, or be part of, a jobseeking period–

(a) any period in respect of which no claim for a jobseeker’s allowance has been made or treated as made;

(b) such period as falls before the day on which a claim for a jobseeker’s allowance is made or treated as made or, where good cause is shown for a claim outside the prescribed time for claiming, before the earliest date in respect of which good cause is shown;

(c) where a claim for a jobseeker’s allowance has been made or treated as made but no entitlement to benefit arises in respect of a period before the date of claim by virtue of section 1(2) of the Administration Act (limits for backdating entitlement), that period;

(d) where–

(i) a claimant satisfies the conditions specified in paragraphs (a) to (c) and (e) to (i) of subsection (2) of section 1; and

(ii) entitlement to a jobseeker’s allowance ceases in accordance with regulation 25 (entitlement ceasing on a failure to comply),

the period beginning with the date in respect of which, in accordance with regulation 26, entitlement ceases and ending with the day before the date in respect of which the claimant again becomes entitled to a jobseeker’s allowance; or

(e) any week in which a claimant is not entitled to a jobseeker’s allowance in accordance with section 14 (trade disputes).

(4) For the purposes of section 5 (duration of a contribution-based jobseeker’s allowance) any day—

(a) which falls within a jobseeking period;

(b) on which the claimant satisfies the conditions specified in section 2 (the contribution-based conditions) other than the conditions specified in subsection (1)(c) and (d) of that section; and

(c) on which the claimant is not entitled to a contribution-based jobseeker’s allowance by virtue of section 19 or any provision of these Regulations,

shall be treated as if it was a day in respect of which he was entitled to a contribution-based jobseeker’s allowance.

Linking Periods

48.—(1) For the purposes of the Act, two or more jobseeking periods shall be treated as one jobseeking period where they are separated by a period comprising only—

(a) any period of not more than 12 weeks;

(b) a linked period;

(c) any period of not more than 12 weeks falling between–

(i) any two linked periods; or

(ii) a jobseeking period and a linked period;

(d) a period in respect of which the claimant is summoned to jury service.

(2) Linked periods for the purposes of the Act are any of the following periods–

(a) to the extent specified in paragraph (3), any period throughout which the claimant is entitled to an invalid care allowance under section 70 of the Benefits Act;

(b) any period throughout which the claimant is incapable of work, or is treated as incapable of work, in accordance with Part XIIA of the Benefits Act(1);

(c) any period throughout which the claimant was entitled to a maternity allowance under section 35 of the Benefits Act;

(d) any period throughout which the claimant was engaged in training for which a training allowance is payable.

(3) A period of entitlement to invalid care allowance shall be a linked period only where it enables the claimant to satisfy contribution conditions for entitlement to a contribution-based jobseeker’s allowance which he would otherwise be unable to satisfy.

Persons approaching Retirement and the Jobseeking Period

49.—(1) The provisions of this regulation apply only to days which fall–

(a) after 6th October 1996; and

(b) within a tax year in which the claimant has attained the age of 60 but is under pensionable age,

and in respect of which a jobseeker’s allowance is not payable because the decision of the determining authority is that the claimant—

(i) has exhausted his entitlement to a contribution-based jobseeker’s allowance; or (ii) fails to satisfy one or both the contribution conditions specified in section 2(1)(a) and (b); or

(iii) is entitled to a contribution-based jobseeker’s allowance but the amount payable is reduced to Nil by virtue of deductions made in accordance with regulation 81 for pension payments.

(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1) of regulation 47 (jobseeking period) but subject to paragraphs (3) and (4), any days to which paragraph (1) applies shall be days on which the person is treated as satisfying the conditions specified in paragraphs (a) to (c) and (e) to (i) of subsection (2) of section 1 (conditions of entitlement to a jobseeker’s allowance).

(3) Where a person–

(a) is treated as satisfying the conditions of entitlement mentioned in paragraph (2); and

(b) is employed as an employed earner or a self-employed earner for a period of more than 12 weeks, then no day which falls within or follows that period shall be days on which the person is treated as satisfying those conditions so however that this paragraph shall not prevent paragraph (2) from again applying to a person who makes a claim for a jobseeker’s allowance after that period.

(4) Any day which is, for the purposes of section 30C of the Benefits Act(2), a day of incapacity for work falling within a period of incapacity for work shall not be a day on which the person is treated as satisfying the conditions referred to in paragraph (2).

Persons temporarily absent from Great Britain

50.—(1) For the purposes of the Act, a claimant shall be treated as being in Great Britain during any period of temporary absence from Great Britain—

(a) not exceeding 4 weeks in the circumstances specified in paragraphs (2), (3) and (4);

(b) not exceeding 8 weeks in the circumstances specified in paragraph (5).

(2) The circumstances specified in this paragraph are that–

(a) the claimant is in Northern Ireland and satisfies the conditions of entitlement to a jobseeker’s allowance; and

(b) immediately preceding the period of absence from Great Britain the claimant was entitled to a jobseeker’s allowance; and

(c) the period of absence is unlikely to exceed 52 weeks.

(3) The circumstances specified in this paragraph are that–

(a) immediately preceding the period of absence from Great Britain the claimant was entitled to a jobseeker’s allowance; and

(b) the period of absence is unlikely to exceed 52 weeks; and

(c) while absent from Great Britain, the claimant continues to satisfy, or be treated as satisfying, the other conditions of entitlement to a jobseeker’s allowance; and

(d) is one of a couple, both of whom are absent from Great Britain, where a premium referred to in paragraphs 10, 11, 12, 13 or 15 of Schedule 1 (applicable amounts) is applicable in respect of the claimant’s partner.

(4) The circumstances of this paragraph are that–

(a) while absent from Great Britain the person is in receipt of a training allowance; and

(b) regulation 170 (person in receipt of training allowance) applies in his case; and

(c) immediately preceding his absence from Great Britain, he was entitled to a jobseeker’s allowance.

(5) The circumstances specified in this paragraph are that–

(a) immediately preceding the period of absence from Great Britain, the claimant was entitled to a jobseeker’s allowance; and

(b) the period of absence is unlikely to exceed 52 weeks; and

(c) the claimant continues to satisfy or be treated as satisfying the other conditions of entitlement to a jobseeker’s allowance; and

(d) the claimant is, or the claimant and any other member of his family are, accompanying a member of the claimant’s family who is a child or young person solely in connection with arrangements made for the treatment of that child or young person for a disease or bodily or mental disablement; and

(e) those arrangements relate to treatment–

(i) outside Great Britain;

(ii) during the period whilst the claimant is, or the claimant and any member of his family are, temporarily absent from Great Britain; and

(iii) by, or under the supervision of, a person appropriately qualified to carry out that treatment.

(6) A person shall also be treated, for the purposes of the Act, as being in Great Britain during any period of temporary absence from Great Britain where—

(a) the absence is for the purpose of attending an interview for employment; and

(b) the absence is for 7 consecutive days or less; and

(c) notice of the proposed absence is given to the employment officer before departure, and is given in writing if so required by the officer; and

(d) on his return to Great Britain the person satisfies the employment officer that he attended for the interview in accordance with his notice.

(7) In this regulation–

“appropriately qualified” means qualified to provide medical treatment, physiotherapy or a form of treatment which is similar to, or related to, either of those forms of treatment;

“employment officer” means a person who is an employment officer for the purposes of sections 9 and 10.

Remunerative Work

51.—(1) For the purposes of the Act “remunerative work” means–

(a) in the case of the claimant, work in which he is engaged or, where his hours of work fluctuate, is engaged on average, for not less than 16 hours per week; and

(b) in the case of any partner of the claimant, work in which he is engaged or, where his hours of work fluctuate, is engaged on average, for not less than 24 hours per week;

and for those purposes, work is work for which payment is made or which is done in expectation of payment.

(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1), the number of hours in which the claimant or his partner is engaged in work shall be determined—

(a) where no recognisable cycle has been established in respect of a person’s work, by reference to the number of hours or, where those hours are likely to fluctuate, the average of the hours, which he is expected to work in a week;

(b) where the number of hours for which he is engaged fluctuate, by reference to the average of hours worked over—

(i) if there is a recognisable cycle of work, and sub-paragraph (c) does not apply, the period of one complete cycle (including, where the cycle involves periods in which the person does not work, those periods but disregarding any other absences);

(ii) in any other case, the period of five weeks immediately before the date of claim or the date of review, or such other length of time as may, in the particular case, enable the person’s average hours of work to be determined more accurately;

(c) where the person works at a school or other educational establishment or at some other place of employment and the cycle of work consists of one year but with school holidays or similar vacations during which he does no work, by disregarding those periods and any other periods in which he is not required to work.

(3) In determining in accordance with this regulation the number of hours for which a person is engaged in remunerative work—

(a) that number shall include any time allowed to that person by his employer for a meal or for refreshments, but only where the person is, or expects to be, paid earnings in respect of that time;

(b) no account shall be taken of any hours in which the person is engaged in an employment or scheme to which any one of paragraphs (a) to (h) of regulation 53 (person treated as not engaged in remunerative work) applies;

(c) no account shall be taken of any hours in which the person is engaged otherwise than in an employment as an earner in caring for—

(i) a person who is in receipt of attendance allowance under section 64 of the Benefits Act or the care component of disability living allowance at the highest or middle rate; or

(ii) a person who has claimed an attendance allowance to which section 64 of the Benefits Act applies or a disability living allowance, but only for the period beginning with the date of claim and ending on the date the claim is determined or, if earlier, on the expiration of the period of 26 weeks from the date of claim; or (iii) another person is in receipt of an invalid care allowance under Section 70 of the Benefits Act.

(4) In the case of a person to whom regulation 22 of the Income Support (General) Amendment No.4 Regulations 1991(3) would have applied had he been entitled to income support and not a jobseeker’s allowance, paragraph (1)(a) shall have effect as if for the reference to 16 hours there was substituted a reference to 24 hours.

(5) In determining for the purposes of paragraph (4) whether regulation 22 of the 1991 Regulations applies, regulations 23 and 24 of those Regulations shall have effect as if the references to income support included also a reference to income-based jobseeker’s allowance.

Persons treated as engaged in remunerative work

52.—(1) Except in the case of a person on maternity leave or absent from work through illness, a person shall be treated as engaged in remunerative work during any period for which he is absent from work referred to in regulation 51(1) (remunerative work) where the absence is either without good cause or by reason of a recognised, customary or other holiday.

(2) For the purposes of an income-based jobseeker’s allowance, the partner of a claimant shall be treated as engaged in remunerative work where—

(a) the partner is or was involved in a trade dispute; and

(b) had the partner claimed a jobseeker’s allowance, section 14 (trade disputes) would have applied in his case; and

(c) the claimant was not entitled to an income-based jobseeker’s allowance when the partner became involved in the trade dispute;

and shall be so treated for a period of 7 days beginning on the date the stoppage of work at the partner’s place of employment commenced, or if there was no stoppage of work, the date on which the partner first withdrew his labour in furtherance of the trade dispute.

(3) A person who was, or was treated as being, engaged in remunerative work and in respect of that work earnings to which regulation 98(1)(b) and (d) (earnings of employed earners) applies are paid, shall be treated as engaged in remunerative work for the period for which those earnings are taken into account in accordance with Part VIII.

Persons treated as not engaged in remunerative work

53.  A person shall be treated as not engaged in remunerative work in so far as—

(a) he is engaged by a charity or a voluntary organisation or is a volunteer where the only payment received by him or due to be paid to him is a payment which is to be disregarded under regulation 103(2) and paragraph 2 of Schedule 7 (sums to be disregarded in the calculation of income other than earnings);

(b) he is engaged on a scheme for which a training allowance is being paid;

(c) he is in employment and–

(i) lives in, or is temporarily absent from, a residential care home, a nursing home or residential accommodation, and either

(ii) his, or his partner's, applicable amount falls to be calculated in accordance with Schedule 4 (applicable amounts of persons in residential care or nursing homes), or, as the case may be, paragraphs 5 to 9 or 15 to 17 of Schedule 5 (applicable amounts in special cases), or

(iii) he or his partner satisfies the conditions specified in paragraph 3(2) of Part I of Schedule 1 (conditions of entitlement to a residential allowance);

(d) he is engaged in employment as–

(i) a part-time member of a fire brigade maintained in pursuance of the Fire Services Acts 1947 to 1959(4);

(ii) an auxiliary coastguard in respect of coastal rescue activities;

(iii) a person engaged part-time in the manning or launching of a lifeboat;

(iv) a member of any territorial or reserve force prescribed in Part I of Schedule 3 to the Social Security (Contributions) Regulations 1979(5);

(e) he is performing his duties as a councillor, and for this purpose “councillor” has the same meaning as in section 171F(2) of the Benefits Act(6);

(f) he is engaged in caring for a person who is accommodated with him by virtue of arrangements made under any of the provisions referred to in paragraph 27 or 28 of Schedule 7 (sums to be disregarded in the calculation of income other than earnings), and is in receipt of any payment specified in that paragraph;

(g) he is–

(i) the partner of the claimant; and

(ii) involved in a trade dispute; and (iii) not a person to whom regulation 52(2) applies,

and had he claimed a jobseeker’s allowance, section 14 (trade disputes) would have applied in his case;

(h) he is mentally or physically disabled, and by reason of that disability–

(i) his earnings are reduced to 75 per cent. or less of what a person without that disability and working the same number of hours would reasonably be expected to earn in that employment or in comparable employment in the area; or

(ii) his number of hours work are 75 per cent. or less of what a person without that disability would reasonably be expected to undertake in that employment or in comparable employment in the area.

Relevant education

54.—(1) Only full-time education which is undertaken by a child or young person and which is not a course of advanced education shall be treated as relevant education for the purposes of the Act.

(2) A child or young person who is receiving full-time education for the purposes of section 142 of the Benefits Act (meaning of child) or who is treated as a child for the purposes of that section shall be treated as receiving full-time education.

(3) A young person who–

(a) is a part-time student; and

(b) before he became a part-time student fulfilled the requirements specified for a person falling within paragraph (2) of regulation 11 (part-time students); and

(c) is undertaking a course of study, other than a course of advanced education or a course of study of a kind specified in head (i), (ii) or (iii) of the definition of “full-time student” in regulation 1(3),

shall not be treated as receiving relevant education.

(4) A young person to whom paragraph (3) applied and who has completed or terminated his course of part-time study shall not be treated as receiving relevant education.

Short periods of sickness

55.—(1) Subject to the following provisions of this regulation, a person who–

(a) satisfies the requirements for entitlement to a jobseeker’s allowance or satisfies those requirements other than those specified in section 1(2)(a) or (c) or is a person to whom any of the circumstances mentioned in section 19(5) or (6) apply; and

(b) proves to the satisfaction of the adjudication officer that he is unable to work on account of some specific disease or disablement; and

(c) but for his disease or disablement, satisfies the requirements for entitlement to a jobseeker’s allowance other than those specified in section 1(2)(a), (c) and (f) (available for and actively seeking employment, and capable of work),

shall be treated for a period of not more than 2 weeks as capable of work, except where the claimant states in writing that for the period of his disease or disablement he proposes to claim or has claimed incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance or income support.

(2) The evidence which is required for the purposes of paragraph (1)(b) is a declaration made by the claimant in writing, in a form approved for the purposes by the Secretary of State, that he has been unfit for work from a date or for a period specified in the declaration.

(3) The preceding provisions of this regulation shall not apply to a claimant on more than two occasions in any one jobseeking period or where a jobseeking period exceeds 12 months, in each successive 12 months within that period and for the purposes of calculating any period of 12 months, the first 12 months in the jobseeking period commences on the first day of the jobseeking period.

(4) The preceding provisions of this regulation shall not apply to any person where the first day in respect of which he is unable to work falls within 8 weeks of—

(a) an entitlement of his to incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance or statutory sick pay; or

(b) an entitlement to income support where the person claiming a jobseeker’s allowance satisfied the requirements for a disability premium by virtue of paragraph 12(1)(b) of Schedule 2 to the Income Support Regulations.

Prescribed amount of earnings

56.—(1) The prescribed amount of earnings for the purposes of section 2(1)(c) (the contribution-based conditions) shall be calculated by applying the formula—

where—

• A is the age-related amount applicable to the claimant in accordance with section 4(2); and

• D is any amount disregarded from the claimant’s earnings in accordance with regulation 99(2) (calculation of net earnings of employed earners) or regulation 101(2) (calculation of net profit of self-employed earners) and Schedule 6.

(2) For the avoidance of doubt in calculating the amount of earnings in accordance with paragraph (1), only the claimant’s earnings shall be taken into account.

(1)

Part XIIA was inserted by the Social Security (Incapacity for Work) Act 1994 (c. 18), section 5.

(2)

)Section 30C was inserted by the Social Security (Incapacity for Work) Act 1994 (c. 18), section 3.

(3)

S.I. 1991/1559.

(4)

1947 c. 41, 1951 c. 27, 1959 c. 44.

(5)

S.I. 1979/591; Part I of Schedule 1 substituted by S.I. 1980/1975.

(6)

Section 171F was inserted by the Social Security (Incapacity for Work) Act 1994 (c. 18), section 6(1).