asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will issue guidelines which would elaborate for claimants of unemployment payments, the necessary requirements to be regarded as available for and seeking work under the terms of the social welfare scheme.
Ceisteanna—Question. Oral Answers. - Unemployment Payment Claim Guidelines.
13.
It is a basic statutory condition for the receipt of unemployment assistance and unemployment benefit that a claimant must be available for and genuinely seeking but unable to find employment suitable to him or her having regard to his or her age, physique, education, normal occupation, place of residence and family circumstances. The legislation provides also that the onus is on the individual claimants to prove that they are available for work. It does not, however, state what form such proof should take. It is accordingly a question for the deciding officers and appeals officers to decide whether any claimant has shown that he or she fulfils the condition having regard to the available evidence.
On making a claim for unemployment benefit or assistance, claimants are furnished with an information leaflet which advises them about the scheme, including the statutory conditions which they must satisfy. In addition, they are asked to compete a questionnaire regarding their efforts to obtain employment. In completing this questionnaire, claimants are advised that they must not place any unreasonable restrictions on the type, location or hours of work they are seeking. Claimants may also be asked subsequently at any stage of their claim about these matters. Each case has to be considered on its own merits and it is a matter for the deciding officer to decide the exact evidence required in any case having regard to the individual circumstances of the claimant.
I am satisfied that claimants generally are aware that they must be available for and genuinely seeking work. I accept, however, that it would be helpful to claimants if they could have the maximum possible information about the requirements. I am glad to be able to tell the Deputy that new comprehensive information booklets on the unemployment assistance and benefit schemes will be available soon. These will improve the information on these matters available to the public.
I am glad to learn of the decision to issue information booklets but I am a little worried that it will not touch on the kinds of questions that are raised with us as local representatives when applicants ask exactly what proof is required. How much traipsing around must they do in an effort to obtain letters in what appears to be a useless exercise — certainly in some of my towns and villages where virtually no new jobs have come on stream for the last couple of years? Yet there is an insistence that they produce massive documentation. The Minister should be more specific as to what is required of people in that situation. I want to raise one other issue. It occurs to me in relation to applications for unemployment payments that women get a very rough deal. I am thinking in particular of married women where there appears to be an automatic assumption that they are not available for work. In my experience it appears that the extent of the proof required from them is far greater than from any other category.
The general question of availability is set out in the legislation and——
The interpretation.
——it is a question then of interpretation. That is the reason we have deciding officers. We can take any set of circumstances and say in one set of circumstances it is reasonable to look for three, four or five letters or to show reasonable frequency. I have had quite a number of people at my clinics — and I am sure the Deputy has had the same experience — where they did not seem to get their message across and it appeared to me that they were available for work. You would then find from what they said or what they produced could have created the impression that they were not really looking for work or were looking for it fairly generally. There are the classical cases in Dublin where on a particular road they go to about five places beside each other and that is it.
Does the Minister think they should give five different addresses?
I am not deciding. We appoint deciding officers to decide these matters and by and large they do a very good job. You will always find — and I will find as a public representative — that there are cases which are difficult to understand and perhaps with a little assistance we can help the people to get over that. So far as the married women are concerned the guidelines to the officers are specific and it is clear that there is to be no discrimination on any kind of grounds, even in relation to child care responsibilities these are to be the same both for male and female claimants.
Would the Minister accept——
The guidelines are very clearly set out for deciding officers.
Would the Minister accept that in his own experience and as a hard working constituency Deputy — his constituency is similar to mine — that married women, particularly those with children, have a far more difficult time proving their case for unemployment benefit than anybody else?
The Deputy has made that point.
Let us take a husband and wife with a number of small children. If the husband is there and he can say that his wife is minding the children at home, then there is no question about it. If the husband happens to be working and the wife is also going to work obviously there is nobody to mind the children so it must be indicated how the children are to be cared for. I would like to assure the Deputy that the guidelines are very clear about that and particularly so in recent years.
I disagree with the Minister in what he is saying. I have a constant stream of women with children who have been asked who is minding their children when they apply for unemployment benefit. I have never had one man come to my advice centre saying that he had been asked who is minding the children. That question has never been asked of them. What guidance is being given to unemployed people as to how they should prove they are actively seeking and are available for work. It is not enough to say they must prove this and leave it to their own devices. Those who know the ropes will obviously be able to do it, those who do not will be refused——
Exactly.
——and will have to go through appeal after appeal until they learn the ropes. Surely the Department should make available some guidance as to how they should prove they are actively seeking and are available for work. I have a case of a young single girl who was made redundant——
What we are having from the Deputy is more of a statement than questions.
She was told she was not actively seeking work and was not available for work.
Please, Deputy.
I have had cases where it happened with redundancy, for example, where the person knew they would be made redundant from a particular date but assumed that the unemployment benefit would be available for so long. One is required to show from the beginning that one is looking for work. I know that kind of case can arise. All I can say is that the guidelines are very clear in relation to non-discrimination. I will note what the Deputies have said here today.