To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the Draft Legislative Programme 2009, Cm 7564, page 37, what steps will be taken from 2010 against a person aged under 25 years who has been unemployed for a year and who fails to take up a job, work experience or a training place. (284960)

From April 2010, we will require all young people aged 18 to 25 approaching the 12-month point of their claim to jobseeker's allowance to take up one of the offers included in the Young Person's Guarantee: a subsidised job, training or a place on the Community Task Force.

We know that most jobseeker's allowance customers want to get back to work, and we expect the Young Person's Guarantee to help thousands of young people into jobs. Where a customer refuses to take up the job or provision they are referred to without good reason, the existing jobseeker's allowance conditionality rules will apply and they may be subject to a benefit sanction.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the Draft Legislative Programme 2009, Cm 7564, page 37, what her definition is of a guaranteed job which a person aged under 25 who has been unemployed for a year will be required to take up. (284963)

The Budget spoke of a guaranteed offer, one element of which is a job. The jobs consist of 150,000 new jobs created through the Future Jobs Fund and additionally up to 100,000 existing jobs in key employment sectors. These will be offered alongside work-focused training or meaningful activity via a community task force.