Benefit claimants will soon be required to work longer hours in order to be released from regular job centre appointments, the Work and Pensions Secretary has said.
Under the current rules, those claiming benefits do not have to continue attending appointments with job advisers once they are employed for the equivalent of nine hours a week. However in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Therese Coffey said the Government was set to increase that cut-off point, with the paper reporting it would be raised to 12 hours.
Ms Coffey said: "Once you get a job, if you're working fewer than the equivalent of nine hours a week, we still expect you to be coming in and looking for work. We're going to be raising that, I hope, very soon. We just want to help people get on into work. So that's really important."
