Skip to main content
Normal View

Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 21 Nov 1996

Vol. 471 No. 8

Written Answers. - Social Welfare Benefits.

Paul McGrath

Question:

108 Mr. McGrath asked the Minister for Social Welfare whether a person (details supplied) in County Kildare, who has worked specific hours per week for the past two years, is entitled to unemployment assistance for the remaining time; if persons with similar hours of employment in similar employment are currently eligible for unemployment assistance; whether there are other cases with identical hours and days of employment in respect of which unemployment assistance is paid; if his attention has been drawn to the contrasting manner in which this claim was disallowed in comparison to the way in which a recent appeal has been refused; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22386/96]

It is a statutory condition for receipt of unemployment benefit that a claimant has sustained a substantial loss of employment. The person concerned has been employed in regular permanent part-time employment since 1989. She claimed unemployment benefit from 24 May 1995 and this claim was disallowed by a deciding officer on the grounds that her normal employment pattern showed no substantial loss of employment.

Her appeal against that decision to the independent social welfare appeals office was disallowed by an appeals officer for the same reasons as given by the deciding officer.
The determination as to whether a substantial loss of employment has occurred in any case depends on the particular pattern of employment. A substantial loss of employment occurs where a claimant has lost at least one day of insurable employment in any period of six consecutive days by comparison with the normal pattern of employment provided also that the earnings are reduced as a consequence of the loss of employment.
Establishing what the normal pattern of employment actually is can give rise to difficulties in particular cases. However, I am having the application of this condition reviewed at present to ensure that a consistent approach is adapted in situations of this kind.
Top
Share