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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 2 Mar 1965

Vol. 214 No. 8

Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Unemployment Assistance.

57.

asked the Minister for Social Welfare the grounds on which an applicant can be disallowed unemployment assistance.

No person can receive unemployment assistance unless he is the holder of a qualification certificate, the grant of which depends, in the main, on the applicant's age and yearly means. Once he has such a certificate the person must satisfy certain statutory conditions and be free from certain statutory disqualifications before he can obtain unemployment assistance. As there are a number of these conditions and disqualifications, I propose, with your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, to circulate with the official Report a statement setting out particulars of them. I may add that these particulars are available to applicants in explanatory leaflets issued by my Department.

Following is the statement:

STATUTORY CONDITIONS FOR THE RECEIPT OF UNEMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE.

The following are the statutory conditions to be satisfied by the holder of a qualification certificate before he is entitled to receive unemployment assistance:

(a) that he has made application for unemployment assistance in the prescribed manner and proves in the prescribed manner that since the date of his application he has been continuously unemployed;

(b) that he is capable of work and is available for and genuinely seeking but is unable to obtain employment suitable for him having regard to his age, sex, physique, education, normal occupation, place of residence, and family circumstances;

(c) that the weekly rate of his means (as shown on his qualification certificate) less 5/- in the case of a person with a dependant, or 2/- in the case of a person without a dependant, does not equal or exceed the scheduled rate of assistance applicable to his case;

(d) that since his qualification certificate was issued to him he has not done anything and no change of circumstances or other event has occurred which would invalidate the certificate or would disentitle him to hold it;

(e) if he has been duly required by a Deciding Officer to attend a course of instruction appointed or approved by regulations, that he has duly attended the course in accordance with that requirement;

(f) in the case of a person resident in an urban area applying for unemployment assistance, that either—

(i) he has, at any time before making his application, been ordinarily resident in any urban area for a period of five years, or for a number of periods which amount in the aggregate to five years, or

(ii) he has been ordinarily resident in any urban area for at least one year immediately preceding the application, or

(iii) he has had at least three months employment in any urban area within the year immediately preceding the application;

(The urban areas for the purposes of the Acts are the county boroughs of Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Waterford, the borough of Dún Laoghaire and the urban districts of Athlone, Bray, Carlow, Clonmel, Drogheda, Dundalk, Galway, Kilkenny, Sligo, Tralee and Wexford. Residence in a house owned by the local authority of an urban area but situated outside the urban area is deemed to be residence in the urban area).

(g) in the case of a widow or spinster who has no dependant, that not less than fifty-two employment contributions under the Social Welfare Acts have been paid in respect of her at the appropriate rate during the four Contribution Years preceding the Contribution Year in which application for unemployment assistance is made.

Note 1: With regard to (a), persons affected by the two Employment Periods Order made each year under the Unemployment Assistance Acts are deemed not to be unemployed during the period specified in the relevant Order and are thus debarred from the receipt of assistance during such period.

Note 2: A person shall not be deemed to have failed to comply with the conditions contained in paragraphs (a) and (b) by reason only of the fact that he is undergoing a course of rehabilitation training provided by an organisation, being an organisation approved of by the Minister for Health for the purposes of the provision of such training, whether or not the course is a course in respect of which he is in receipt of a monetary training allowance paid by the organisation.

STATUTORY DISQUALIFICATION FOR RECEIVING UNEMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE.

A person is disqualified for receiving unemployment assistance—

(1) (a) while resident, whether temporarily or permanently, outside the State; or

(b) while undergoing imprisonment or detention in any prison or other place of detention maintained wholly or partly out of public moneys; or

(c) while an inmate of any institution maintained wholly or partly out of public moneys or by a local authority; or

(d) while in receipt of or entitled to—

(i) a pension as a blind person under the Old Age Pensions Acts, or

(ii) any disability benefit or unemployment benefit under the Social Welfare Acts, or

(iii) any widow's, contributory, pension or maternity allowance under the Social Welfare Acts or a widow's, non-contributory, pension under the Widows' and Orphans' Pensions Acts; or

(2) If he loses his employment through his misconduct or voluntarily leaves his employment without just cause. (The disqualification in this type of case is for the period of three months from the date when he so lost or left his employment or for such shorter period, not being less than one week, as may be determined); or

(3) If he loses his employment by reason of a stoppage of work due to a trade dispute at the place or premises at which he was employed. (Subject to certain exceptions the disqualification lasts as long as the stoppage of work continues); or

(4) If he is convicted in court of an offence under the Unemployment Assistance Acts. (The disqualification in this type of case is for six months from the date of conviction).

Does the Minister not consider it unfair that an applicant for unemployment assistance receives payment only from the date on which the qualification certificate is issued rather than the date from which the application for the certificate is made? Is he aware that hardship has been caused because of the operation of that regulation?

I will look into that. I agree that the applicant should get it from the date on which he is otherwise qualified.

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