Jobseekers Act 1995 (as amended)
Post Categories: DWP • Welfare Reform • uk government
Tags: Jobseekers Act 1995, jobseekers allowance
If you are seeking work and claiming Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) you would have heard about the Jobseekers Act 1995 however you are probably more familiar with it being written and acknowledged as the Jobseekers Act 1995 (as amended).
What does this mean? Read on for a brief explanation on the law that applies to you.
Jobseekers Act 1995
This is the hardcore legislation that the Jobseekers Allowance is focused on.
If you have an issue regarding a claim there are two things you might do:
- Google “Jobseekers Act 1995″
Read up on the Jobseekers Act 1995.
- Seek professional legal advice
You might be surprised that there are over 50 different legislation that changes the Jobseekers Act 1995 or changes the way its applied by Jobcentre Plus and the Department for Work and Pensions. Jobcentre Plus will never state what these laws are (so how can you comply with them?).
There are so many of them now that it may seem pointless and rather silly to list all 50 or so of them, however, each different law will change different parts and many laws update previously changed laws therefore the newer ones only need to be notified or the ones specific to the purpose of the information.
Jobseekers Act 1995 (as amended)
Just some of the minimum laws that amends the Jobseekers Act 1995 or change the way its applied:
The Employment Protection (Recoupment of Jobseeker’s Allowance and Income Support) Regulations 1996
The Income Support (General) (Jobseeker’s Allowance Consequential Amendments) Regulations 1996
The Income Support (General) and Jobseeker’s Allowance Amendment (No. 2) Regulations 1999
The Income Support (General) and Jobseeker’s Allowance Amendment Regulations 1999
The Income Support (General) and Jobseeker’s Allowance Amendment Regulations 2000
The Income Support (General) and Jobseeker’s Allowance Amendment Regulations 2001
The Income Support (General) and Jobseeker’s Allowance Amendment Regulations 2002
The Income-related Benefits and Jobseeker’s Allowance (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 1997
The Income-related Benefits and Jobseeker’s Allowance (Amendment) Regulations 1997
The Income-related Benefits and Jobseeker’s Allowance (Amendment) Regulations 2000
The Income-related Benefits and Jobseeker’s Allowance (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 1997
The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 1997
The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 1998
The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 1999
The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2000
The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2000
The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Amendment) Regulations 1996
The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Amendment) Regulations 1997
The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Amendment) Regulations 1998
The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Amendment) Regulations 1999
The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Amendment) Regulations 2000
The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Amendment) Regulations 2001
The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Amendment) Regulations 2002
The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Amendment) Regulations 2004
The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Contract for Work) Regulations 1997
The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Joint Claims) Amendment Regulations 2002
The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Joint Claims) Amendment Regulations 2008
The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Joint Claims) Regulations 2000
The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Joint Claims: Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2000
The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Transitional Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations 1996
The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Transitional Provisions) Regulations 1995
The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Transitional Provisions) Regulations 1996
The Jobseeker’s Allowance Amendment (New Deal) Regulations 1998
The Jobseeker’s Allowance Amendment (New Deal) Regulations 1999
The Jobseeker’s Allowance and Income Support (General) (Amendment) Regulations 1996
The Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations 1996
The Social Security (Claims and Payments) (Jobseeker’s Allowance Consequential Amendments) Regulations 1996
The Social Security (Credits and Contributions) (Jobseeker’s Allowance Consequential and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 1996
The Social Security (Incapacity Benefit and Jobseeker’s Allowance) Amendment Regulations 1999
The Social Security (Income Support and Jobseeker’s Allowance) Amendment Regulations 2004
The Social Security (Income Support and Jobseeker’s Allowance) Amendment Regulations 2006
The Social Security (Jobcentre Plus Interviews for Partners) Amendment Regulations 2008
The Social Security (Jobcentre Plus Interviews for Partners) Regulations 2003
The Social Security (Jobcentre Plus Interviews) Regulations 2001
The Social Security (Jobcentre Plus Interviews) Regulations 2002
The Social Security (Jobseeker’s Allowance Consequential Amendments) (Deductions) Regulations 1996
The Social Security (Unemployment, Sickness and Invalidity Benefit) Amendment (No. 2) Regulations 1995
The Social Security (Unemployment, Sickness and Invalidity Benefit) Amendment Regulations 1995
The Social Security Amendment (New Deal) (No.2) Regulations 1998
The Social Security Amendment (New Deal) Regulations 1997
The Social Security Amendment (New Deal) Regulations 1998
The Social Security Amendment (New Deal) Regulations 2001
Jobseekers Act 1995 (as amended by Jobseeker Agreement (JSAg))
The law can vary slightly from one person or another by means of the Jobseeker Agreement (JSAg). Technically, the Jobseeker Agreement doesn’t amend, change or erase any aspects of the Jobseekers Act 1995 (as amended) however it acts as an important “guide” for use of the Jobcentre Plus staff in applying the clauses of the Jobseekers Act 1995; which in turn changes the definition of “actively seeking employment” etc. to different people with different Jobseeker Agreements (JSAg).
Link Summary
36 Responses to “Jobseekers Act 1995 (as amended)”
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- Available for Employment: Jobseekers Allowance terminology « Jobseekers Allowance Advice:
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I am signing on but not receiving jsa as my wife works part-time and is claiming tax credits. Can the job centre legally refuse to let me sign on at my usual signing time and force me to return later that day for failing to attend an interveiw?
The title of this page is misleading. Instead of being called “Jobseeders Act 1995 (as amended)”, perhaps it should be called “Jobseekers Act !995 (list of amendments).
Apologies for my spelling mistake.
where in these regulations and rules does it say an employment advisor or ndpa can insist someone uses their car to travel to a job outwith the area they stay even though insurance for said car does not cover travel to and from permanent place of work and annual mileage limit is 10,000 per year?
also can refusal to use said car as suggested by ea or ndpa be used as a basis for benefit sanctioning?
when you return to sign on you could tell them the car is now sold as it was not being used due to using public transport therby no benefit sanction could be imposed also keep the car in a lockup outwith where you stay thereby avoiding being seen by a member of jobcentre also when not behind their desk they have no durasdiction over what you do outwith the jobcentre as their legal powers stop at the jobcentre entrance
if you take a job outwith where you stay and use public transport but own a car this would not in my opinion be a valid reason for them to sanction benefit as you are going to the job its just that you are using public transport so why should benefit sanctions even come into the equation youve accepted the job and are using public transport to get there so dont see what the problem is have these idiots not heard our illustious prime minister spouting on tv dont use your car use the train or bus or are have all jobcentre workers got subnormal brains also to travel to a job outwith where you stay in my opinion it would have to be 1) a job i would enjoy doing 2) pay at least£7 an hour and 3) only be mon-fri some of the jobs the idiots at cupar jobcentre selected for me in glenrothes were working seven days a week okay for them finish early friday and off for the weekend to pursue their hobbies but the rest of us have to work seven days a week what also annoyed me about these glenrothes jobs were they were bottom of the ladder jobs cleaners kitchen porters crap jobs noone else wanted why were glenrothes unemployed not being told to apply for these jobs ?
if an employment officer has durasdiction that you have to use your car the answer is simple get a friend to register his name as the registered keeper and insure car with claimant as second driver if claimant is seen driving said car claimant tells employment officer car isnt his and produces registration document to prove car has new registered keeper as claimants name will be shown as previous keeper
claimant explains new keeper has claimant as second driver but access to car is limited to weekends only but even then it may not be available this is agreement with new keeper therefore said employment officer cant sanction claimants benefit if he doesnt have 24/7 access to vehicle
claimant can also say reason for selling was due to running costs ie insurance road tax mot costs petrol and being unemployed
simples
First and foremost a JSAG is an ‘agreement’ with the personal adviser and the person claiming Jobseekers Allowance, the agreement is by all parties concerened, YOU AND THE SECRETARY OF STATE, (the personal adviser acts on thier behalf), it is NOT a list of things YOU WILL DO OR ELSE although it is a legally binding document as far as your benefit claim is concerned
Secondly you are expected to be able to travel upto 1 1/2 hours one way trip BY PUBLIC TRANSPORT.
Please remember Jobcentre staff do not live in the office are are too part of the ‘real world’ and only know full well the problems of living on benefits bring!
this reason for selling wouldnt be reasonable cause for reducing employment prospects as claimant can use public transport
also unless it states on jsag that you use your car the rules wouldnt be enforceable? my jsag didnt say anything about using my car to a job outwith cupar all it said was i would consider jobs in north and central fife thats all and did point out that i would use the bus
only way jobcentre could prove you were driving a car would be via the police and they wouldnt want to know unless said person saw you entering the vehicle in a drunken state which in my case wouldnt apply as i dont drink alcohol never have never will do
i was challenged by a ea at jobcentre when signing the female said she saw me driving my car at a roundabout five miles outside cupar when i asked her what kind of car it was she couldnt tell me so i bluffed it by saying it was an elderly neighbours car whom had asked me to take it for an mot as they were unwell and the mot had been prebooked but that no payment was offered by the neighbour for doing this for them nor would i have accepted any payment
the job i work at now is two miles outside cupar only way to get there is to use the car
when i went to the jobcentre about claiming working tax credit i told jobcentre i would be cycling to work as it was only two miles but in reality i used the car as it was quicker plus i had somewhere to go during my coffee break
i valet caravans and motorhomes part time 16 hours a week min wage and i got the job through my own efforts whats the betting that if it had been jc notified the jc idiots would not have offered it to me?
if you were doing 200 miles per day five days a week this means an anual mileage limit of 10,000 on insurance would be racked up within a matter of months meaning reverting to public transport and not using the car also who could cope with driving 200 miles round trip a day five days a week? it would have to be a hell of a good wage for a start plus add on petrol costs my car does 45 to the gallon and can do 190 miles round trip on £20 petrol who could afford filling up with £20 petrol every day thats £100 a week for petrol which compared to public transport costs is a hell of an outlay to get to work every day(my tank takes 35 pounds worth to fill the tank from empty) hence the every day fill up comment
Don’t admit to having a car. Ever. The jcp where I sign on is uncommon in that it actually has a carpark of its own, only small but most of the staff walk to work. One time I was in there, a guy was being interrogated and said he couldn’t get to some crap job they were trying to make him apply for, as he was reliant on the buses. “Oh yes,” says the jcp employee, “so whose van is that you just drove here in?” Idiot. They’ll have you going after every crap job no matter where it is. If I have to drive in a borrowed car I park around the corner out of sight, but I prefer to cycle and either leave my bike in the lobby – amazingly nobody’s ever moaned about this despite the handlebar marks on the wall – or chain it to the railings out front. I seldom get any hassle about transport now.
they typically do that with hard to fill vacancies these are often located in a rural location where rents are low on sites, low paid and very difficult to recruit,impossible to get to by public transport or times out side of timetables.
the attitude is “you have a car you can get a job”.and only a limited number of people could get there for start times if at all.
these types of jobs are not viable because of costs of motoring (for those that can afford it) on the low wages plus you would need a good reliable car,sensible advice above if the job centre know you have a car they will expect you to use it,it doesnt cost them anything and your expected to pay.
there seems to be a plan by the royal mail to recruit around 30,000 temporary staff over the Christmas period nothing new there,but the numbers are usually around 15,000.very possibly, this is worrying these might be used to strike break if disruption continues.
these vacancies can appear at the job centre as well as the local media,how will this effect unemployed people who decline these oppenings at the job centre?.and will they post them.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8313042.stm
i would say dont admit to having a bicycle either or the idiots in the job centre will make you apply for jobs where public transport does not go to
just imagine having to cycle 8 miles in the winter in pouring rain with a headwind it would take at least two hours to get home in those conditions even if they see you on a bike tell them you borrowed it from a friend as you were running late and would have been late for signing on if you hadnt used the bike
believe me these idiots will latch onto anything to make you take the crappiest lowest paid job out just to get you off benefit no doubt that is why my idiot ndpa now has a 53 plate alfa romeo whereas before all he had was an r reg mondeo must have made a hell of a lot of bonus to be able to afford a car like that!
the job centre dont care, was sent for a job at 6.30am start and the first bus in that rural direction was at 7.53am about 12 miles away,i dont have a car.and that was dependent on school days’.
even a driving licence brought a comment on new deal,no mention though how to get there,that is totally unreasonable.
thats nothing an idiot ea i had wanted me to apply for a job working in glenrothes which included sunday working the first bus to glenrothes on a sunday is 1048am the start time was 9am his answer was oh am sure they could work round that
trouble was the buses on a sunday are every two hours which meant if i finished at five i would have had two hours to wait his answer was you could sit in the pub for two hours thats as maybe but i dont go to the pub as i dont drink alcohol the only time am in a pub or hotel is when am with my cycling club and we go for lunch even then its a coke i drink not alcohol
the shop he wanted me to apply to that had the vacancy sells clothes and out of curiosity went into the shop there was noone of my age group ie over 50 working in that shop in fact there was noone over the age of fifty working in any shop in the shopping centre in glenrothes so what would be the point in applying for these jobs? other than keeping ea happy and thereby avoiding benefit sanctioning although he didnt force me to apply for this job he only suggested it this idiot must have thought i came off a container ship at dundee docks!
also why were glenrothes unemployed not being told to apply for these jobs or are they being told to apply for jobs in cupar perhaps?
it looks as if this may be more common then first thought,unfortunately the pressure brought on advisers at the job centre to get “customers” submitted for vacancies’ seems to rule beyond logical reason,this behavior is unacceptable. those vacancies are difficult to fill as most would never get there for that start time hence anyone that could by averages is more likely to be taken on.
unfortunately there appears to be no set guidelines for staff to adhere to,if there is its not evident other then the “job seekers charter” it appears that that is more likely to be breached by the job centre then the “customer”, and are only guidelines.this leaves it wide open to who ever you see at interviews different situations arise.
people should not be filled with dread that is not what they are there for.
totally agree ken dont let them get inside your head because when that happens all you do is think about it and it gives you stress
when i told idiot ndpa he was giving me stress his answer was go to the doctor and get pills my reply was if you remove the cause you remove the stress needless to say he didnt reply to this answer
mind you he is a complete pratt one time he said “if i had more qualifications i could have been a brain surgeon ” and i replied oh yeah and my dog is going to win supreme champion at crufts this year
i also told him that he would be no use as a taxi driver when he asked why i told him he did not have a pleasant and curteous manner towards customers and if he treated taxi customers the same way as benefit claimants he wouldnt last a day
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Thanks for the suggestion. it is called Jobseekers Act 1995 (as amended) as thats what Jobcentre Plus refers the law to.
Of course you can receive benefit sanctions (which will fall under these 2 groups):-
“Not Actively Seeking Employment” (sometimes also “Not available for work”) – that is if you refuse the job interview on that basis or deliberately do poorly at the interview should the interview be held in a more convenient place.
“Dismissal or left job voluntary” – should you refuse or give up after you get the job.
Both these sanctions can be up to 6 months – typically 6 months is what they try for.
Sadly general rule of thumb is of travel up to 2 hours (when you first sign on it is 60 minutes then normally rises to 1.5 hours). That is up to 4 hours travelling a day – approx half a fulltime mon-fri job’s daily hours. I don’t know who could cope with that long term. With public transport it isn’t too bad (although we would all prefer travel in a car) due to the long journey times etc. but in a car you go where you want to go which means typically you will get their quicker meaning you will have to travel even further. This would mean up to 200 mile round trip per day to work and back.
An Employment Officer can insist all they want. At the end of the day the system is clever in that respect. The laws are written as Secretary of State almost everywhere. Employment Officers (and now Flexible New Deal provider employees) have delegated powers which means it is extremely rare could any Jobcentre Plus or DWP staff member (exception of some Managers) ever be accountable for their actions. If someone overpays or underpays a claimant it is a mistake. If someone wrongly advises you, you misunderstood the situation and got confused. If you can prove it such as letter or voice recording then they will either stick to you being confused still or they might in rare circumstances admit it was a … “mistake”! If you sign on and the person behind the desk forgets to stick your claim through on the computer (although everyone is allocated an average of a 5 minute time slot however most people stay for only 2 minutes maximum) then it was a mistake. You can moan and complain about the member of staff all you like but everyone hides behind the Jobcentre Plus.
Ring up the BDC and most will give you a false name (first name, wont disclose their second). All staff are rather immune from being useless at their jobs.
As if you had that job even though the distance you would be a millionnaire thus you would have plenty of money to change your insurance to allow for this… well, this isn’t exactly reality – but that is what the Jobcentre Plus last word on it would be. If you returned to sign on, they would sanction you as losing a job voluntary. They would claim your reason as for insurance as an excuse.
Good idea, however, even if someone at the Jobcentre saw you even with hearsay evidence allowed, it would be hard for them to enforce it thinking they saw someone driving a car. You would simply deny it – there is bound to be people who look similar to others – not sure they would be able to do anything about it.
Then they couldn’t enforce it!
True (unless public transport isn’t available).
Well, some people are expected to use public transport to get to and from rural locations where after work they have to wait an hour for the bus or train. Remember this is rural so there is nothing else to do at all… no fast food, no shop windows to browse/no high street to walk, and some places dont even have a bus stop with seating or shelter.
The move by Royal Mail is a good one. They are hiring staff to cover the strike action. They can’t replace staff who are striking but may employ temporary staff. The next stage will be getting an injunction to officially end the industrial action. Then if the staff aren’t happy still then they will get replaced. Trust me they don’t want to be doing Flexible New Deal.
See Ch 20(1) – http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1995/ukpga_19950018_en_3#pt1-pb6-l1g20
So where was the logic in getting someone to apply for that job?
I would clearly state you had “good cause” should an doubt arise in your claim as the job vacancy would be “unreasonable” when you have no means to travel to it.
Even if travel was before the time you need be there, 12 miles is also unrealistic. I would say probably 2 miles is the maximum (subject to any disabilities etc.) you should be able to require to travel by foot.
Whats with the Jobcentre putting people in so unsuitable jobs? If you lived locally then its a potentially good job. Who is really going to hold down a job when having to travel somewhere to get there before 6.30am? It isn’t going to happen.
SADLY JOBCENTRE PLUS RECRUITS PEOPLE TYPICALLY WITH VERY LOW IQ – EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES OR SOMETHING?!