Oral Answers to Questions

Duncan Hames Excerpts

Monday 1st July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Steve Webb]

The hon. Lady refers to soaring rents, but I hope she accepts the evidence from the Office for National Statistics, which last week published figures for rents in London in the private rented sector that showed an increase of 2.2% below the rate of inflation.

[Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)]

A constituent of mine on jobseeker’s allowance who is actively seeking work was recently made to give up some of the volunteering he was doing. What good is an arbitrary 16-hour-a-week limit on volunteering by JSA recipients when what really matters is that they do whatever is best to increase their chances of getting a job?

[Mr Hoban]

There is no 16-hour-a-week limit on voluntary work, so let me slay that myth first. The important thing is that the jobseeker is actively seeking work, and advisers have some flexibility on that, but volunteering should not get in the way of trying to find a job.