Work for your Benefit

Section 17A, to which workfare schemes such as the Work Programme and Mandatory Work Activity are made under, allows Jobcentre Plus to send Jobseekers Allowance claimants on schemes of any description. However, in order for that to happen there has to be Regulations made that meet the following 3 criteria (as bold in the snippet from the Act):-

•  Those eligible for such scheme must be of specific defined criteria in regards to their circumstances
•  The requirement to participate is subject to the scheme being adequately defined in regards to what its about
•  The scheme must be genuinely designed to assist eligible Jobseekers Allowance claimants a reasonable opportunity to successfully obtain employment as a direct result of their participation
  

“Work for your benefit” schemes

17A.—
(1) Regulations may make provision for or in connection with imposing on claimants in prescribed circumstances a requirement to participate in schemes of any prescribed description that are designed to assist them to obtain employment.

(2) Regulations under this section may, in particular, require participants to undertake work, or work-related activity, during any prescribed period with a view to improving their prospects of obtaining employment.

(3) In subsection (2) “work-related activity”, in relation to any person, means activity which makes it more likely that the person will obtain or remain in work or be able to do so.

(4) Regulations under this section may not require a person to participate in a scheme unless the person would (apart from the regulations) be required to meet the jobseeking conditions.

(5) Regulations under this section may, in particular, make provision–

(a) for notifying participants of the requirement to participate in a scheme within subsection (1);

(b) for securing that participants are not required to meet the jobseeking conditions or are not required to meet such of those conditions as are specified in the regulations;

(c) for suspending any jobseeker’s agreement to which a person is a party for any period during which the person is a participant;

(d) for securing that the appropriate consequence follows if a participant has failed to comply with the regulations and it is not shown, within a prescribed period, that the participant had good cause for the failure;

(e) prescribing matters which are, or are not, to be taken into account in determining whether a participant has good cause for any failure to comply with the regulations;

(f) prescribing circumstances in which a participant is, or is not, to be regarded as having good cause for any failure to comply with the regulations.

Read the full Section 17A of Jobseekers Act 1995 (includes 17A 6-9 which hasn't been included above)

The Work Programme Network disputes that the Mandatory Work Activity scheme, for just one example, is lawful, and believes there is no lawful authority to require a claimant to participate and likewise to sanction them for failure to participate. This is for the below reasons:-

• The MWA Regulations which are allegedly made under section 17A(1) of the Jobseekers Act 1995, doesn't define  the prescribed cirumstances of claimants in order for them to be eligible. Eligibility is left to adviser discretion which isn't stated in the Regulations and such Regulations is without a Schedule detailing the discretionary criteria. 
• The MWA Regulations used a blanket description of the scheme: "is designed to provide work or work-related activity for up to 30 hours per week over a period of four consecutive weeks with a view to assisting claimants to improve their prospects of obtaining employment" which is possibly inadequate.
  
•  The Mandatory Work Activity scheme is designed as a punishment for those no doing enough to seek work or those doing just enough each week, and absolutely does nothing to assist a claimant obtain employment. All work activity is designed to be in the community which doesn't replace existing or suspected jobs, therefore there is no realistic chance of employment resulting from such work and employers also will not recognised such unskilled work in the community because its delegated via statute, in a similar way that Community Service is.

The second reason above under the second main Section 17A condition is a minor issue, whilst the first and third reasons are significant. The third categorically explains why the scheme is unlawful as 17A(1) clearly sticks a requirement on the last condition which isn't being met. The first condition means even if the unlawful third condition is overlooked, no one is eligible for the scheme:- so the scheme could exist but no one would ever be place on to it.

If lawfully set to attend a workfare scheme, Jobcentre Plus cannot force a claimant of Jobseekers Allowance to engage in performing labour for their Jobseekers Allowance benefit payments. If a jobseeker chooses to observe (thus not failing to attend or refusing the scheme entirely) he or she cannot be punished for not earning his or hers benefit as it isn't a condition of claiming Jobseekers Allowance to do so.