Labour Research (July 2001)

Law Matters

Job Seeker's allowance biased

The Court of Appeal has ruled that the Job Seeker's Allowance (JSA) discriminates against fathers who are separated from their partners but share the care of their children. The JSA rules only give an addition for children where the applicant is in receipt of child benefit. Since only one parent can claim child benefit (usually the mother), the father was able to argue that the rule had a discriminatory impact on men. The court said that JSA was to be treated as pay, and not as a social security benefit, and was therefore covered by European law on equal pay.


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