{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/income-support-general-regulations-northern-ireland-1987/regulation-9",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/income-support-general-regulations-northern-ireland-1987/regulation-9.json",
  "legislation": "nisr/1987/459",
  "legislation_title": "The Income Support (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/income-support-general-regulations-northern-ireland-1987",
  "path": "regulation/9",
  "kind": "regulation",
  "number": "9",
  "heading": "Persons treated as available for employment",
  "text": "(1) Except in a case to which regulation 10 (circumstances in which claimants are not to be treated as available for employment) applies, a claimant shall be treated as available for employment if, and only if—\n(a) he is available to be employed, within the meaning of section 17(1)(a)(i) of the principal Act or regulations made under it (requirement to be available to be employed for the purposes of unemployment benefit), in employment to which regulation 7 (meaning of employment) applies;\n(b) he is normally engaged for less than the number of hours prescribed in paragraph (c) of regulation 7 in respect of him in employment to which that regulation applies, and he is available, within the meaning of section 17(1)(a)(i) of the principal Act or regulations made under it, for such further number of hours which would, in aggregate with the number of hours for which he is normally engaged, be not less than the number of hours prescribed in regulation 7(c) for his case; or\n(c) he satisfies the conditions in paragraph (2) and is attending—\n(i) a course of education at an establishment recognised by the Department as being, or as comparable to, a school or college, or\n(ii) a course of training or instruction analogous to a course for which a training allowance would be payable,\nand, in either case, he is prepared to terminate the course immediately a suitable vacancy becomes available to him.\n(2) The conditions referred to in paragraph (1)(c) are that either—\n(a) the claimant was, for a continuous period of not less than 3 months falling immediately before the commencement date—\n(i) in receipt of a qualifying benefit, or\n(ii) on a course of training or instruction organised by or on behalf of the Department of Economic Development as part of the Youth Training Programme; or\n(b) during the period of 6 months falling immediately before the commencement date the claimant was—\n(i) for a period, or periods in aggregate, of not less than 3 months in receipt of a qualifying benefit or on a course of training or instruction organised by or on behalf of the Department of Economic Development as part of the Youth Training Programme, and\n(ii) after the period referred to in head (i) or, in the case of periods in aggregate, after the first such period and throughout the remainder of the 6 months for which that head did not apply to him, engaged in appropriate work,\nand that the period of 3 months referred to in sub-paragraph (a) or, as the case may be, the period of 6 months referred to in sub-paragraph (b) fell wholly after the terminal date.\n(3) In this regulation—\n“appropriate work” means remunerative work for the purpose of Article 21(3)(c) of the Order (conditions of entitlement to income support) or other work the emoluments from which are such as to disentitle the person engaged in it from a qualifying benefit;\n“commencement date” means the date on which the claimant first attended the course of education or course of training or instruction;\n''course'' means a course in the pursuit of which the time spent receiving instruction or tuition, undertaking supervised study, examination or practical work or taking part in any exercise, experiment or project for which provision is made in the curriculum of the course does not, subject to paragraph (4), exceed 21 hours a week;\n''qualifying benefit'' means unemployment benefit or sickness benefit under the principal Act or, in the case of a claimant who is required to be available for employment under Article 21(3)(d) of the Order or who is not so required under paragraph 5 of Schedule 1 (persons not required to be available by reason of same disease or bodily or mental disablement), income support.\n(4) In calculating the time spent in pursuit of a course for the purpose of this regulation, no account shall be taken of time occupied by meal breaks or spent on unsupervised study, whether undertaken on or off the premises of the educational establishment or place of instruction or training.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f1",
      "text": "See sections 12(1)(a) and (b) and 14; section 12(1)(a) and (b) was amended by the Schedule to the Social Security (No. 2) (Northern Ireland) Order 1980 (S.I. 1980/1087 (N.I. 13)) and paragraph 1(a) of Schedule 3 to the Health and Social Security (Northern Ireland) Order 1984 (S.I. 1984/1158 (N.I. 8)) section 14 was amended by Article 20(1) of, and paragraph 21 of Schedule 5 to the Social Security Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1975, paragraph 5 of Schedule 3 to the Social Security (Northern Ireland) Order 1979, the Schedule to the Social Security (No. 2) (Northern Ireland) Order 1980, Article 32(3) of and paragraph 5 of Schedule 4 to, the Social Security (Northern Ireland) Order 1982 (S.I. 1982/1084 (N.I. 16)) and paragraph 53 of Schedule 9 to the Social Security (Northern Ireland) Order 1986"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [
    {
      "type": "word omitted",
      "affecting": "nisr/2022/230",
      "affecting_title": "The Social Security (Habitual Residence and Past Presence) (Amendment No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022"
    },
    {
      "type": "word added",
      "affecting": "nisr/2022/230",
      "affecting_title": "The Social Security (Habitual Residence and Past Presence) (Amendment No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022"
    },
    {
      "type": "added",
      "affecting": "nisr/2022/230",
      "affecting_title": "The Social Security (Habitual Residence and Past Presence) (Amendment No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022"
    },
    {
      "type": "omitted",
      "affecting": "nisr/2003/367",
      "affecting_title": "The Social Security (Back to Work Bonus and Lone Parent Run-on Amendment and Revocation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003"
    }
  ],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/1987/459/regulation/9",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T03:18:43.914608+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}