The Jobseeker’s Allowance Amendment (New Deal) Regulations 1998

Full-time students undertaking a qualifying course

2.—(1) Regulation 17A of the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations 1996(1) (further circumstances in which a person is to be treated as available: full-time students undertaking a qualifying course) shall be amended in accordance with the following paragraphs of this regulation.

(2) At the beginning of paragraph (2)(b), there shall be inserted the words “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 paragraphs (7) 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 of the definition there shall be substituted the following–

• “receiving–

  (a)

  benefit which that person has claimed and received as an unemployed person or in accordance with Part I of the Act; 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 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(2), as extended by Article 1(2) of the Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees done at New York on 31st January 1967(3); or

(ii) has been granted exceptional leave(4)–

(aa) to enter the United Kingdom by an immigration officer appointed for the purposes of the Immigration Act 1971(5); 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 21ZA(2) or (3) of the Income Support Regulations (treatment of refugees).”.

(1)

S.I. 1996/207; regulation 17A was inserted by S.I. 1998/1274.

(2)

Cmd. 9171.

(3)

Cmnd. 3906.

(4)

For a description of “exceptional leave”, see Home Office evidence to the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee. Sub-Committee on Race Relations and Immigration (SCORRI) 1984–5 Session; 17th December 1984, paragraphs 44 to 47.

(5)

1971 c. 77 as amended by the British Nationality Act 1981 (c. 61).