To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for how long a single person claiming jobseeker’s allowance could work at the national minimum wage adult rate before that person’s earnings attracted a 100 per cent. withdrawal of jobseeker’s allowance in each year of the national minimum wage’s existence. (302541)

The national minimum wage was introduced in April 1999 and is uprated each October.

For a single customer with no children and no disabilities there is a £5 disregard each week for part-time earnings in jobseeker’s allowance. Earnings above the disregard lead to a pound for pound (100 per cent.) reduction in jobseeker’s allowance.

People moving into work of more than 16 hours a week lose entitlement to JSA. However, the effect of the national minimum wage and, where paid, tax credits mean that the overwhelming majority are better off in work than on benefit.

The available information for a single customer with no children and no disabilities is given in the following table.