The Social Security (Jobcentre Plus Interviews) Regulations 2002

Interpretation and application E+W+S

2.—(1) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—

• “the 1998 Act” means the Social Security Act 1998 M1 ;

• “benefit week” means any period of seven days corresponding to the week in respect of which the relevant specified benefit is due to be paid;

• F1 ...

• F2 ...

• “interview” means a work-focused interview with a person who has claimed a specified benefit and which is conducted for any or all of the following purposes—

  (a)

  assessing that person’s prospects for existing or future employment (whether paid or voluntary);

  (b)

  assisting or encouraging that person to enhance his prospects of such employment;

  (c)

  identifying activities which that person may undertake to strengthen his existing or future prospects of employment;

  (d)

  identifying current or future employment or training opportunities suitable to that person’s needs; and

  (e)

  identifying educational opportunities connected with the existing or future employment prospects or needs of that person;

• [F3 “lone parent” has the meaning it bears in regulation 2(1) of the Income Support (General) Regulations 1987;]

• “officer” means a person who is an officer of, or who is providing services to or exercising functions of, the Secretary of State;

• [F4 “pensionable age”, in the case of a man born before 6th April 1955, means the age when a woman born on the same day as the man would attain pensionable age;]

• [F5 “relevant benefit” means income support other than income support where one of the following paragraphs of Schedule 1B to the Income Support (General) Regulations 1987 applies—

  (a)

  paragraph 7 ([F6 persons treated as capable of work and persons entitled to statutory sick pay]), or

  (b)

  paragraph 24 or 25 (persons appealing against a decision which embodies a determination that they are not incapable of work);]

• [F7 “relevant interview” means an interview under these Regulations in relation to the claimant’s current award of a specified benefit;]

• [F8 “specified benefit” means income support, incapacity benefit and severe disablement allowance;]

• [F9 “specified person” means—

  (a)

  a lone parent, or

  (b)

  a person who claims—

  (i)

  incapacity benefit,

  (ii)

  income support where paragraph 7 ([F6 persons treated as capable of work and persons entitled to statutory sick pay]) of Schedule 1B to the Income Support (General) Regulations 1987 applies,

  (iii)

  income support where paragraph 24 or 25 (persons appealing against a decision which embodies a determination that they are not incapable of work) of Schedule 1B to the Income Support (General) Regulations 1987 applies, or

  (iv)

  severe disablement allowance.]

(2) For the purposes of these Regulations—

(a) a person shall be deemed to be in remunerative work where he is in remunerative work within the meaning prescribed in [F10 regulation 6 of the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006] ; but

(b) a person shall be deemed not to be in remunerative work where—

(i) he is not in remunerative work in accordance with sub-paragraph (a) above; or

(ii) he is in remunerative work in accordance with sub-paragraph (a) above and is not entitled to income support but would not be prevented from being entitled to income support solely by being in such work; and

(c) a person shall be deemed to be engaged in part-time work where he is engaged in work for which payment is made but he is not engaged or deemed to be engaged in remunerative work.

[F11 (2A) For the purposes of section 2A(2A)(b) of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 and these Regulations, a lone parent is to be treated as responsible for, and a member of the same household as, a child under the age of one only where the lone parent would be treated as being responsible for, and a member of the same household as, such a child under regulations 15 and 16 of the Income Support (General) Regulations 1987, if references in those Regulations to income support were to a specified benefit.]

(3) Except in a case where regulation 16(2) applies,F12 ... regulations 3 to 15 apply in respect of a person who makes a claim for a specified benefit on or after 30th September 2002 at an office of the Department for Work and Pensions which is designated by the Secretary of State as a Jobcentre Plus Office M2 or at an office of a relevant authority (being a person within section 72(2) of the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999 M3 ) which displays the ONE logo M4 .

(4) Where a claim for benefit is made by a person (“the appointee”) on behalf of another, references in these Regulations to a person claiming benefit shall be treated as a reference to the person on whose behalf the claim is made and not to the appointee.

(5) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires, a reference—

(a) to a numbered regulation is to a regulation in these Regulations bearing that number;

(b) in a regulation to a numbered paragraph or sub-paragraph is to the paragraph or sub-paragraph in that regulation bearing that number;

(c) to a numbered Schedule is to the Schedule to these Regulations bearing that number.

Textual Amendments

F1 Words in reg. 2(1) omitted (31.10.2005) by virtue of Social Security (Work-focused Interviews) Amendment Regulations 2005 (S.I. 2005/2727), regs. 1(1), 2(10)(a)

F2 Words in reg. 2(1) omitted (31.10.2011) by virtue of The Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 3) Regulations 2011 (S.I. 2011/2425), regs. 1(2), 14(2)

F3 Words in reg. 2(1) inserted (31.10.2005) by Social Security (Work-focused Interviews) Amendment Regulations 2005 (S.I. 2005/2727), regs. 1(1), 2(2)(b)

F4 Words in reg. 2(1) inserted (6.4.2010) by Social Security (Work-focused Interviews etc.) (Equalisation of State Pension Age) Amendment Regulations 2010 (S.I. 2010/563), regs. 1, 6(2)

F5 Words in reg. 2(1) inserted (31.10.2005) by Social Security (Work-focused Interviews) Amendment Regulations 2005 (S.I. 2005/2727), regs. 1(1), 2(2)(b)

F6 Words in reg. 2(1) substituted (30.12.2009) by The Income Support (Prescribed Categories of Person) Regulations 2009 (S.I. 2009/3152), regs. 1, 3(4) (with reg. 3(7))

F7 Words in reg. 2(1) inserted (31.10.2011) by The Social Security (Work-focused Interviews for Lone Parents and Partners) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 (S.I. 2011/2428), regs. 1, 3(2)(a)

F8 Words in reg. 2(1) substituted (31.10.2005) by Social Security (Work-focused Interviews) Amendment Regulations 2005 (S.I. 2005/2727), regs. 1(1), 2(2)(a)

F9 Words in reg. 2(1) inserted (31.10.2005) by Social Security (Work-focused Interviews) Amendment Regulations 2005 (S.I. 2005/2727), regs. 1(1), 2(2)(b)

F10 Words in reg. 2(2) substituted (6.3.2006) by The Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (Consequential Provisions) Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/217), reg. 1(1), Sch. 2 para. 21 (with regs. 2, 3, Schs. 3, Sch. 4)

F11 Reg. 2(2A) inserted (31.10.2011) by The Social Security (Work-focused Interviews for Lone Parents and Partners) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 (S.I. 2011/2428), regs. 1, 3(2)(b)

F12 Words in reg. 2(3) omitted (24.4.2006) by virtue of Social Security (Working Neighbourhoods) Miscellaneous Amendments Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/909), regs. 1(1), 2(3)(a)

Marginal Citations

M1 1998 c.14.

M2 Offices designated as Jobcentre Plus Offices are identified in two lists entitled “Jobcentre Plus Pathfinder Offices” and “Jobcentre Plus Work-focused Interview Extension Sites” which are available from the Department for Work and Pensions, W2W1, 4S25, Quarry House, Quarry Hill, Leeds, LS2 7UA.

M3 1999 c.30.

M4 Offices displaying the ONE logo are identified in a list entitled “ONE sites—a complete list” which is available from the Department for Work and Pensions, W2W1, 4S25, Quarry House, Quarry Hill, Leeds, LS2 7UA.