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If you are between 18 and 24 years old and have been unemployed for 6 months, you will be offered a compulsory place on a New Deal programme. This is applied to everyone aged 18 - 24, claiming JSA and unemployed for 6 months. If you are unemployed and 25 or more, a lone parent, receive incapacity benefit, are a disabled person or a person over 55, you may be eligible for another New Deal programme. It is always best to get advice if you are not sure what is in your best interests. If you are not eligible for New Deal and are claiming Jobseeker's Allowance, the rules allow unemployed claimants to take a part-time course of training or study whilst looking for work. This means that if you are unemployed and claiming JSA, you can take up a place on a part-time education or training course so long as:
- you are a part-time student; and
- you are available to start work immediately; and
- you are willing and able to take time off the course to attend a job interview; and
- you can be contacted promptly while attending the course; and
- you can rearrange the hours of the course to fit around a job; or
- you are prepared to abandon the course at once to take up any job of over 24 hours a week; and
-
you are actively seeking work
If you are planning to start a course of study or training while claiming benefits, it is very important to get advice from college guidance staff, welfare rights officers, careers officers or advisors in education guidance services for adults before or when you enrol, to make sure that you understand how the issues and regulations, which are often complex and may change at short notice, will affect you.
Information on the Jobseeker's Allowance is taken with permission from the publications of CESI. For subscriptions or copies of their publications (not advice), giving regular updates on government schemes, benefits and policies on training and employment issues and their training and briefing sessions, contact: the CESI (Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion) 89 Albert Embankment London SE1 7TP, Tel: 020 7582 7221 (4 lines) 020 7582 7275 (2 lines), Fax: 020 7582 7721 Email: info@cesi.org.uk
Comprehensive information on JSA and other benefits and their training programmes and briefings is also available from the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), 94 White Lion Street, London N1 9PF, Tel: 020 7837 7979 Fax: 020 7837 6414, Email: staff@cpag.org.uk.
Information on disability benefits from the Disability Rights Handbook, published by Disability Alliance, Universal House, 88 - 94 Wentworth Street, London E1 7SA, Tel: 0207 247 8776.
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