asked the Minister for Social Welfare the reason unemployment benefit has been refused to a person (details supplied) in Dublin 8.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Social Welfare Benefits.
13.
Entitlement to unemployment benefit is subject to the condition that a claimant must be fully available for work and must be genuinely seeking work.
The person concerned claimed unemployment benefit on 4 January 1985 and stated that she was only seeking part-time work. A deciding officer was of the opinion that she did not satisfy the condition of being available for work and disallowed her unemployment benefit claim.
She recently appealed against the disallowance of her claim and arrangements are being made to have her case dealt with by an appeals officer at the earliest opportunity.
How is a decision made that the person is not available for work when he specifies that he is available for part-time work? What is the distinction? Surely the requirement is that people must be available for work, not full time work.
The requirement is available for full time work. If people who are unemployed and are on the labour market limit their availability to specific times, or say that they are available for half a day only, they do not come within the provisions of the Social Welfare Acts for unemployment benefit or assistance because they are not available for work. The definition of work is full time work.
In what part of the social welfare code is it specified that it must be full time work?
If someone goes into an employment exchange and says he is available for work for one hour a week, is it to be argued that he should be compensated by way of unemployment benefit because one hour's work a week is not available for him? This is an unemployment benefit claim. People must be available for the normal hours of work. It is not sufficient for someone to say he is available for work at certain times. It is all right if they coincide with what is regarded as normal working hours. If someone says he is not available for work until 10 o'clock in the morning and he must be able to leave at 5 o'clock in the evening, he is limiting his availability. People who unreasonably limit their availability for employment are not entitled under the Social Welfare Acts to be compensated for being unemployed. It could be argued that they are making some contribution to their own unemployment if they limit their availability in any way outside the normal working hours.
What could a young applicant support——
I should not have allowed, in my opinion, Deputy De Rossa to go as far as he did. This is a specific question dealing with a named person. It is usual to confine the supplementaries to the case concerned. The Deputy will get another opportunity to raise his query on something else. If it is about this case, yes, but I will not allow it if it is not.
The Minister has stated that people should be available for work during virtually the 24-hour period of the day. I wonder if someone who suffered from, for example, night blindness, would be considered eligible or ineligible?
I have just disallowed Deputy Moynihan on such a question and I cannot allow this.
Could I ask a question specifically relating to this case? Did the applicant specify that she would not be available for specific hours, or simply say that it was part time work she was seeking, without specifying hours?
In this case, the applicant stated that she was seeking only part time work.
With no specific hours?
Yes, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. only.
That is normal working hours.