asked the Minister for Social Welfare his views on the fact that applicants for unemployment benefit or unemployment assistance have been asked to sign in advance declarations duly certified by the Garda Síochána on 5 December 1988 that they were unemployed and were not able to obtain suitable employment in respect of weeks ending the 6, 13, 20 and 27 December 1988; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - Unemployment Benefit Signing Arrangements.
141.
Unemployed persons who reside more than six miles from a local office prove unemployment by attending each week at a signing centre, which in the vast majority of cases is the local Garda Station. Payment of unemployment assistance and unemployment benefit is authorised following receipt at the local office of the certified declarations.
Because of the constraints placed on the Garda and local employment offices over the Christmas period, it is not possible to operate the normal weekly signing arrangements. Instead, claimants were required to attend at their signing centre on Monday, 5 December to have their declaration of unemployment in respect of the four unemployment weeks ending on 6, 13, 20 and 27 December 1988 certified. The claimants were advised that if they subsequently found employment during this four week period, they should report the fact to their employment exchange as soon as possible.
The position is, therefore, that claimants were asked to attend at their signing centres once only instead of on four separate occasions. It is not considered that special arrangements of this kind, which apply every year in December are unreasonable given that their sole purpose is to avoid any inconvenience or delay to claimants in receiving their unemployment payments over the Christmas period.