The Income Support (General) Regulations 1987

Persons treated as engaged in remunerative work E+W+S

5.—(1) Subject to the following provisions of this regulation, for the purposes of section 20(3)(c) of the Act (conditions of entitlement to income support), remunerative work is work in which a person is engaged, or, where his hours of work fluctuate, he is engaged on average, for [F1 not less than 16 hours] a week being work for which payment is made or which is done in expectation of payment.

[F2 (1A) In the case of any partner of the claimant paragraph (1) shall have effect as though for the words “16 hours" there were substituted the words “24 hours".]

(2) [F3 Subject to paragraph (3B),] the number of hours for which a person 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, the period of one complete cycle (including, where the cycle involves periods in which the person does no 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.

(3) A person shall be treated as engaged in remunerative work during any period for which he is absent from work referred to in paragraph (1) if the absence is either without good cause or by reason of a recognised, customary or other holiday.

[F4 (3A) A person shall not be treated as engaged in remunerative work on any day on which the person is on maternity leave or is absent from work because he is ill.]

[F5 (3B) Where for the purpose of paragraph (2)(b)(i), a person’s recognisable cycle of work at a school, other educational establishment or other place of employment is one year and includes periods of school holidays or similar vacations during which he does not work, those periods and any other periods not forming part of such holidays or vacations during which he is not required to work shall be disregarded in establishing the average hours for which he is engaged in work.]

(4) A person who makes a claim and to whom or whose partner section 23 of the Act (trade disputes) applies [F6 or applied] shall, for the period of seven days following the date on which the stoppage of work due to a trade dispute at his or his partner's place of work commenced or, if there is no stoppage, the date on which he or his partner first withdrew his labour in furtherance of a trade dispute, be treated as engaged in remunerative work.

(5) A person who was, or was treated as being, engaged in remunerative work and in respect of that work earnings to which [F7 regulation 35(1)(b) to (d) and (i)] (earnings of employed earners) applies are [F8 paid] shall be treated as being engaged in remunerative work for the period for which those earnings are taken into account in accordance with Part V.

[F9 (6) For the purposes of this regulation, in determining the number of hours in which a person is engaged or treated as engaged in remunerative work, no account shall be taken of any hours in which the person is engaged in an employment or a scheme to which paragraph (a) to [F10 paragraph (k)] of regulation 6 (persons not treated as engaged in remunerative work) applies.]

[F11 (7) For the purposes of paragraphs (1) and (2), in determining the number of hours for which a person is engaged in work, that number shall include any time allowed to that person by his employer for a meal or for refreshment, but only where that person is, or expects to be, paid earnings in respect of that time.]

[F12 (8) Subject to paragraph (9), a person who has not been treated as engaged in remunerative work in accordance with regulation 6(2) as a consequence of his commencing work shall be treated as engaged in remunerative work for the period specified in paragraph (10) where he ceased to be engaged in that work within the period of five weeks beginning on the date on which he commenced it.

(9) Paragraph (8) shall not apply in the case of a person who is temporarily absent from the work referred to in regulation 6(2)(a).

(10) A person to whom paragraph (8) applies shall be treated as engaged in remunerative work for the period commencing on the day after the day on which he was last engaged in the work referred to in regulation 6(2)(a) and ending on the day on which the length of that period corresponds with the length of the period in respect of which he had not been treated as engaged in remunerative work in accordance with regulation 6(2).]

Textual Amendments

F1 Sch. 9 para. 19 substituted (with effect in accordance with reg. 1(3) of the amending S.I.) by The Income-related Benefits Schemes (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 1994 (S.I. 1994/527), regs. 1(1)(b), 9(3)

F2 Reg. 5(1A) inserted (with effect in accordance with reg. 1(6) of the amending S.I.) by The Income-related Benefits Schemes and Social Fund (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 1996 (S.I. 1996/1944), regs. 1(1)(a), 6(4) (with reg. 13)

F3 Words in reg. 5(2) inserted (10.4.1995) by The Income-related Benefits Schemes (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 1995 (S.I. 1995/516), regs. 1(1)(a), 19(a) (with reg. 1(2))

F4 Reg. 5(3A) inserted (with effect in accordance with reg. 1(2) of the amending S.I.) by The Income-related Benefits Schemes (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 4) Regulations 1993 (S.I. 1993/2119), regs. 1(1)(a), 3(2)

F5 Reg. 5(3B) inserted (10.4.1995) by The Income-related Benefits Schemes (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 1995 (S.I. 1995/516), regs. 1(1)(a), 19(b) (with reg. 1(2))

F6 Words in reg. 5(4) inserted (11.4.1988) by The Income Support (General) Amendment Regulations 1988 (S.I. 1988/663), regs. 1(1), 4

F7 Words in reg. 5(5) substituted (9.10.1989) by The Income Support (General) Amendment No. 2 Regulations 1989 (S.I. 1989/1323), regs. 1(1)(b), 3

F8 Word in reg. 5(5) substituted (12.12.1988) by The Income Support (General) Amendment No. 5 Regulations 1988 (S.I. 1988/2022), regs. 1(1)(a), 3

F9 Reg. 5(6) added (12.9.1988) by The Income Support (General) Amendment No. 4 Regulations 1988 (S.I. 1988/1445), regs. 1(1)(b), 3

F10 Words in reg. 5(6) substituted (with effect in accordance with reg. 1(2) of the amending S.I.) by The Income-related Benefits Schemes (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 4) Regulations 1993 (S.I. 1993/2119), regs. 1(1)(a), 3(3)

F11 Reg. 5(7) added (with effect in accordance with reg. 1(2)(3) of the amending S.I.) by The Income Support (General) Amendment Regulations 1990 (S.I. 1990/547), regs. 1(1)(b), 4

F12 Reg. 5(8)(9)(10) added (4.10.1999) by The Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 2) Regulations 1999 (S.I. 1999/2556), regs. 1, 2(2)

Commencement Information

I1 Reg. 5 in force at 11.4.1988, see reg. 1