20D: Article 20C: supplemental
Paragraph (2) of this Article states that those who are subject to a jobseeker’s direction under Article 18 of the Jobseekers (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 are not regarded as having breached a direction under the requirements in Articles 20A and 20B of that Order. Article 18 allows the Department to provide jobseeker’s allowance to 16 to 17 year olds on grounds of hardship, and Article 18(3)(b) allows that payment to be revoked if the person is seen to have failed to avail himself or herself of a place on a training scheme, or has lost that place, without demonstrating good cause for doing so, under Article 19(3)(b) or (c) of the 1995 Order.
Regulations can prescribe circumstances in which a person can be considered not to have left employment voluntarily.
Regulations must provide that those claiming the form of jobseeker’s allowance where they do not have to satisfy the jobseeking conditions are not sanctioned for leaving employment after taking a job and may provide that they are not sanctioned for not completing a training scheme.
Paragraphs (7) and (8) of new Article 20C are regulation-making powers which will prescribe what can be considered good cause for failing to carry out a jobseeker’s direction. The amount of payment for the employment cannot be considered good cause through regulations made under these powers.
Paragraph 6 of Schedule 1 substitutes new provisions for Articles 21 and 22 of the Jobseekers (Northern Ireland) Order 1995.