Employment
Work and Pensions

Michael Weir (Angus, Scottish National Party)

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

(1) when his Department last considered the help made available by Jobcentre Plus and other Government agencies to persons previously in full-time employment who have undergone a reduction in their contracted hours to between 16 and 25 hours per week and who require secondary or alternative employment;

(2) if he will take steps to provide assistance in job placement services to persons previously in full-time employment who have undergone a reduction in their contracted hours to between 16 and 25 hours per week and who require secondary or alternative employment.

Mark Hoban (Fareham, Conservative)

Jobcentre Plus provides a public-access employment service to jobseekers irrespective of their employment status or hours of work. This means people facing reduced hours already have access to the Jobcentre Plus national vacancy database. They can use Jobpoints in local Jobcentres or the DirectGov internet jobs search facility to identify opportunities for secondary or alternative employment.

This job search support will be enhanced later this year with the introduction of the new Universal Jobmatch service. This will make job search easier by automatically matching a jobseeker's CV, skills and requirements to jobs that suit their needs.

Support for people seeking to find more work or improve their prospects is under active consideration as part of the changes associated with the introduction of universal credit which will start to be introduced from next year.