Jobseeker's Allowance Regulations 1996

1996 No. 207

SOCIAL SECURITY

The Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations 1996

Made 1st February 1996

Coming into force 7th October 1996

Whereas a draft of this instrument was laid before Parliament in accordance with section 37(2) of the Jobseekers Act 19951and approved by resolution of each House of Parliament;

Now, therefore, the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, in relation to Parts II, IV and V and regulation 170 of these Regulations, and the Secretary of State for Social Security in relation to the remainder of the Regulations, in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 2(1)(c), 3, 4(1)(b), (2), (4), (5) and (12), 5(3), 6, 7, 8, 9(1), (8), (10), (11) and (12), 10(1), (6)(c) and (7), 11(2), (5) and (7), 12, 13, 15(1), (2)(d), (5) and (6), 17(1), 19(2), (4), (7), (8) and (10)(c), 20, 21, 22, 23, 35(1) and (3), 36 and 40 of, and Schedule 1 to, the Jobseekers Act 19952, sections 5(1)(h), (i) and (j), 22(4), 23(9) and (10), 59, 189(4) and (5) and 191 of, and Schedule 3 to, the Social Security Administration Act 19923, sections 171D, 171G(2) and 175(3) and (4) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 19924, and of all other powers enabling each of them in that behalf, by this instrument, which contains only regulations made by virtue of, or consequential upon, those provisions of the Jobseekers Act 1995 and which is made before the end of a period of 6 months beginning with the coming into force of those provisions5, hereby makes the following Regulations:

1 GENERAL

PART I

GENERAL

Citation, commencement and interpretation
S-1 Citation, commencement and interpretation

Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations 1996.

(2) These Regulations shall come into force on 7th October 1996.

(3) In these Regulations–

“the Act” means the Jobseekers Act 1995;

“attendance allowance” means–

(a) an attendance allowance under section 64 of the Benefits Act;

(b) an increase of disablement pension under section 104 or 105 of the Benefits Act (increases where constant attendance needed and for exceptionally severe disablement);

(c) a payment under regulations made in accordance with section 111 of, and paragraph 7(2) of Schedule 8 to, the Benefits Act (payments for constant attendance in workmen’s compensation cases);

(d) an increase in allowance which is payable in respect of constant attendance under section 111 of, and paragraph 4 of Schedule 8 to, the Benefits Act (industrial diseases benefit schemes);

(e) a payment by virtue of article 14, 15, 16, 43 or 44 of the Personal Injuries (Civilians) Scheme 19836or any analogous payment;

(f) any payment based on the need for attendance which is paid as an addition to a war disablement pension;

“benefit week” means a period of 7 days ending on the day which corresponds with the day of the week specified in a notice given or sent to the claimant in accordance with regulation 23 (attendance), except—

(a) where the Secretary of State requires attendance otherwise than at regular two weekly intervals, the “benefit week” ends on such day as the Secretary of State may specify in a notice in writing given or sent to the claimant, and

(b) for the purpose of calculating any payment of income in accordance with Part VIII, “benefit week” also means the period of 7 days ending on the day before the first day of the benefit week following the date of claim or, as the case may be, the last day on which a jobseeker’s allowance is paid if it is in payment for less than a week;

“board and lodging accommodation” means–

(a) accommodation provided to a person or, if he is a member of a family, to him or any other member of his family, for a charge which is inclusive of the provision of that accommodation and at least some cooked or prepared meals which both are cooked or prepared (by a person other than the person to whom the accommodation is provided or a member of his family) and are consumed in that accommodation or associated premises; or

(b) accommodation provided to a person in a hotel, guest house, lodging house or some similar establishment,

except accommodation provided by a close relative of his or of any other member of his family, or other than on a commercial basis;

“Claims and Payments Regulations” means the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 19877;

“close relative” means, except in Parts II, IV and V, a parent, parent-in-law, son, son-in-law, daughter, daughter-in-law, step-parent, step-son, step-daughter, brother, sister, or the spouse of any of the preceding persons or, if that person is one of an unmarried couple, the other member of that couple;

“college of further education” means a college of further education within the meaning of Part I of the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 19928;

“concessionary payment” means a payment made under arrangements made by the Secretary of State with the consent of the Treasury which is charged either to the National Insurance Fund or to a Departmental Expenditure Vote to which payments of benefit under the Act or the Benefits Act are charged;

“co-ownership scheme” means a scheme under which a dwelling is let by a housing association and the tenant, or his personal representative, will, under the terms of the tenancy agreement or of the agreement under which he became a member of the association, be entitled, on his ceasing to be a member and subject to any condition stated in either agreement, to a sum calculated by reference directly or indirectly to the value of the dwelling;

“couple” means a married or an unmarried couple;

“course of advanced education” means–

(a) a course leading to a postgraduate degree or comparable qualification, a first degree or comparable qualification, a diploma of higher education or a higher national diploma; or

(b) any other course which is of a standard above advanced GNVQ or equivalent, including a course which is of a standard above a general certificate of education (advanced level), a Scottish certificate of education (higher level) or a Scottish certificate of sixth year studies;

“course of study” means any course of study, including a course of advanced education and an employment-related course, whether or not it is a sandwich course and whether or not a grant is made for attending or undertaking it and for the purposes of this definition a person who has started a course of study shall be treated as attending or undertaking it, as the case may be, until the last day of the course or such earlier date as he abandoned it or is dismissed from it;

“Crown tenant” means a person who occupies a dwelling under a tenancy or licence where the interest of the landlord belongs to Her Majesty in right of the Crown or to a government department or is held in trust for Her Majesty for the purposes of a government department, except (in the case of an interest belonging to Her Majesty in right of the Crown) where the interest is under the management of the Crown Estate Commissioners;

“date of claim” means the date on which the claimant makes, or is treated as making, a claim for a jobseeker’s allowance for the purposes of regulation 6 of the Claims and Payments Regulations9;

“disability living allowance” means a disability living allowance under section 71 of the Benefits Act;

“disability working allowance” means a disability working allowance under section 129 of the Benefits Act;

“dwelling occupied as the home” means the dwelling together with any garage, garden and outbuildings, normally occupied by the claimant as his home including any premises not so occupied which it is impracticable or unreasonable to sell separately, in particular, in Scotland, any croft land on which the dwelling is situated;

“earnings” has the meaning specified, in the case of an employed earner, in regulation 98, or in the case of a self-employed earner, in regulation 100;

“the Eileen Trust” means the charitable trust of that name established on 29th March 1993 out of funds provided by the Secretary of State for the benefit of persons eligible for payment in accordance with its provisions;

“employment-related course” means a course the purpose of which is to assist persons to acquire or enhance skills required for employment, for seeking employment or for a particular occupation;

“the FEFC” means the Further Education Funding Council for England or the Further Education Funding Council for Wales;

“full-time course of advanced education” means a course of advanced education which is taken by a person who is—

(a) attending a full-time course of study which is not funded in whole or in part by the FEFC or a full-time course of study (not being higher education) which is not funded in whole or in part by the Secretary of State for Scotland at a college of further education;

(b) undertaking a course of study which is funded in whole or in part by the FEFC if it involves more than 16 guided learning hours per week for the student in question, according to the number of guided learning hours per week for that student set out in the case of a course funded by the FEFC for England, in his learning agreement signed on behalf of the establishment which is funded by the FEFC for the delivery of that course or, in the case of a course funded by the FEFC for Wales, in a document signed on behalf of the establishment which is funded by the FEFC for the delivery of that course; or

(c) undertaking a course of study (not being higher education) which is funded in whole or in part by the Secretary of State for Scotland at a college of further education if it involves—

(i) more than 16 hours per week of classroom-based or workshop-based programmed learning under the direct guidance of teaching staff according to the number of hours set out in a document signed on behalf of the college; or

(ii) 16 hours or less per week of classroom-based or workshop-based programmed learning under the direct...

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