Section 18: Work availability requirement

Welfare Reform Act 2012 · 2012 c. 5View on legislation.gov.uk

Part 1: Universal credit — CHAPTER 2: Claimant responsibilities

In this Part a "work availability requirement" is a requirement that a claimant be available for work.

For the purposes of this section "available for work" means able and willing immediately to take up paid work (or more paid work or better-paid work).

Regulations may impose limitations on a work availability requirement by reference to the work to which it relates; and the Secretary of State may in any particular case specify further such limitations on such a requirement.

A limitation under subsection (3) may in particular be by reference to—

work of a particular nature,
work with a particular level of remuneration,
work in particular locations, or
work available for a certain number of hours per week or at particular times,

and may be indefinite or for a particular period.

Regulations may for the purposes of subsection (2) define what is meant by a person being able and willing immediately to take up work.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.