festive greetings all, ho ho ho !!!
have a cl. who attended work focused interview after 6 months of j.s.a and refused to accept employment paid at min. wage rate, and stated he would not work for less than £8.00 ph.
i have spoken with jcp who stated that after 6 months if a person refuses to work for min. wage their benefit can be suspended until they do.
my understanding of this is that a person can refuse to work if they have reasonable grounds to do so, and that if a person is going to be financially worse off this is reasonable ?
help !!! in the words of penelope pitstop ...

pete

... also :
if a person fails to apply for a job or follow a jobseekers direction then a variable j.s.a sanction of between one and 26 weeks can be imposed, not suspended indefinitely ...

pete

Well Pete, it's pretty hard to see how he could be worse off. The JSA amounts are very low and help from tax credits, HB/CTB would be available to him also. Why did he adopt such a silly atitude at the interview anyway, it just puts him in the firing line to be sanctioned/suspended. Reg 9 is quite specific with little room for manouvre and no mention of "reasonable grounds". He has put himself in a difficult position for Christmas! but then all he has to do is go to the jobbycentreminus and say he made a mistake, and will not restrict his employment on grounds of pay. Them the DWP Santa will rewrd him by reinstating his most generous level of JSA.

Unfortunately there is a power to suspend under regulation 16(2) of the Decisions and Appeals Regs where a question arises as to whether a person is available for or actively seeking work.

In your client’s case, merely saying that he will not work for the minimum wage should not attract suspension. The claimant should be given a particular direction to comply and then if he fails to do so a sanction could be imposed if a ground can be made out under section 19 of The Jobseekers Act. There has to be some actual breach of his availability, i.e. refusing to take a job or attend an interview, or actual evidence that “in fact” he is not so available.

The power to suspend should not be abused by imposing a suspension in any circumstance. It should only really be used where a real (as opposed to ‘a possible’) question arises as to availability/actively seeking, and then the period of suspension should only last until the DWP have concluded its enquiries. And enquiries it must make. The Department cannot just sit on its hands and leave the claimant dangling.

However, if they do not suspend he is very likely to be sanctioned becasue Regulation 72(6) says that it is NOT good cause for failing to apply for any job that you object to the level of pay. There's a bit of a mitigation in the provisions about the costs of travelling to work, if that would be a disproportionately large amount of the amount you would earn.