SOCIAL SECURITY

Full-time student granted leave of absence when pregnant - student status retained so not entitled to jobseeker's allowance - regulations not directly discriminatory on grounds of sexWalter v Secretary of State for Social Security: CA (Lords Justice Peter Gibson, Robert Walker and Keene): 6 December 2001The applicant was a full-time student who was granted leave of absence when she fell pregnant.

She was refused jobseeker's allowance because she was of student status under the Jobseeker's Allowance Regulations 1996.

She applied to the social security commissioner for an adjudication.

He decided that the regulations discriminated against pregnant students in an unjustified way and breached Council Directive 79/7/EEC and, he remitted the case for a tribunal to consider whether her status as a student for jobseeker's allowance purposes but not for university purposes came about solely because she was pregnant.

The secretary of state appealed.

Nicholas Paines QC and Natalie Lieven (instructed by Solicitor, Department of Social Security) for the secretary of state.

Richard Drabble QC (instructed by Hugh James Ford Simey, Exmouth) for the applicant.Held, allowing the appeal, that the 1996 regulations governing jobseeker's allowance were not directly discriminatory against women on grounds of sex since a full-time student, who took leave of absence when pregnant, was not entitled to an allowance during the period of her pregnancy by virtue of her status as a student under those regulations and not because of her pregnancy.