EC directive on equal rights requires single parents to set off child care costs.
A social security benefit designed to keep low income workers in employment or to encourage them into employment was within the scope of Directive 76/207/EC, not only as being directly related to access to employment, but also on the basis that the claimants’ working conditions were affected. The Court said that: ‘To confine the latter concept solely to those working conditions which are set out in the contract of employment or applied by the employer in respect of a worker’s employment would remove situations directly covered by an employment relationship from the scope of the directive.’
A benefit such as family credit, which may be paid to a person in Great Britain if his income is no higher than a given ceiling, if he, or if he is a member of a couple, he or the other member of the couple, is engaged in remunerative work and he or the other member of the couple is responsible for a child or another member of the same household, and which performs the dual function of keeping poorly paid workers in employment and of meeting family expenses, has by virtue of its first function an objective which brings it within the scope of Directive 76/207 on the implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women as regards access to employment, vocational training and promotion, and working conditions.
The concept of access to employment referred to in Article 3 of the directive must not be understood as relating solely to the conditions existing before an employment relationship is created. The prospect of receiving family credit if he accepts low-paid work encourages an unemployed worker to accept such work, with the result that the benefit is related to considerations governing access to employment. Furthermore, compliance with the fundamental principle of equal treatment presupposes that a benefit such as family credit, which is necessarily linked to an employment relationship, constitutes a working condition within the meaning of Article 5 of the directive.
Citations:
Times 19-Jul-1995, Ind Summary 11-Sep-1995, C-116/94, [1995] EUECJ C-116/94, [1995] ECR I-2131
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Cited by:
Cited – X v Mid Sussex Citizens Advice Bureau and Another SC 12-Dec-2012
The appellant was disabled, had legal qualifications, and worked with the respondent as a volunteer. She had sought assistance under the Disability Discrimination Act, now the 2012 Act, saying that she counted as a worker. The tribunal and CA had . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Benefits, European
Updated: 19 May 2022; Ref: scu.83675
