1

For the purposes of his entitlement to unemployment benefit or sickness benefit a person shall be entitled to be credited with earnings equal to the lower earnings limit then in force for either one of the last two complete years before the beginning of the relevant benefit year if–

a

during any part of that year he was–

i

undergoing a course of full-time education; or

ii

undergoing–

a

a course of training which was full-time and which was arranged under section 2(1) of the Employment and Training Act 19735; or

b

any other full-time course the sole or main purpose of which was the acquisition of occupational or vocational skills; or

c

if he is a disabled person within the meaning of the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 19446, a part-time course attended for at least 15 hours a week which, if it was full-time, would fall within either of heads (a) or (b) above; or

iii

an apprentice; and

b

the other year is, in his case, a reckonable year; and

c

that course or, as the case may be, his apprenticeship has terminated.

3

If, on the day that this regulation comes into force, regulation 2 (transitional provisions) of the Social Security (Contribution Conditions for Unemployment and Sickness Benefit) Transitional Regulations 19889 applies to a person (or would apply if a claim for benefit for that day had been made within the prescribed time) so that Schedule 3 to the Social Security Act 197510 continues to apply to him as though the amendments made to it by section 6 of the Social Security Act 198811 (contribution conditions for short-term benefits) had not been enacted, then, until the end of the period of interruption of employment in his case which is mentioned in that regulation, the provisions of the principal Regulations shall apply to him as if regulation 2(3)(b)(ii) of these Regulations had not come into force.