CFC 019/90

"A benefit with the characteristics and purpose of family credit is concerned with both access to employment and working conditions and falls, therefore, within the scope of Council Directive 76/207/EEC of 9 February 1976 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".

By reason of their importance, I set out the key passage in the Court's ruling -

"20. It is not disputed in the main proceedings that one of the conditions for the award of family credit is that the claimant should be engaged in remunerative work. According to the legislation referred to by the United Kingdom in its written observations, the aim of the benefit is to ensure that families do not find themselves worse off in work than they would be if they were not working. It is therefore intended to keep poorly paid workers in employment.

That being so, family credit is concerned with access to employment, as referred to in Article 3 of the directive.

Furthermore, it is not only the conditions prevailing before an employment relationship comes into being which are involved in the concept of access to employment. As the Advocate General has pointed out in paragraph 47 of his Opinion, 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."