asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will ensure that persons in receipt of unemployment benefit are notified in ample time about the need to apply for qualification certificates in respect of unemployment assistance so as to avoid lengthy gaps between the termination of payment of benefit and the commencement of payments of assistance.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Unemployment Assistance Qualification Certificates.
42.
My Department has always emphasised to potential claimants of unemployment assistance the advantages of making application for a qualification certificate in good time, and points out in its publicity that application may be made even while a person is still in employment. The standing instructions to staffs at Employment Exchanges and Branch Employment Offices require that a person claiming unemployment benefit who is not the holder of a qualification certificate should be invited at the outset of the benefit claim to apply for a certificate. The instructions furthermore require that a reminder in this regard is given, where necessary, at the stage when the claimant is within eight weeks of the exhaustion of his unemployment benefit.
I should perhaps make clear that, where appropriate, the award of a qualification certificate and any consequential entitlement to unemployment assistance is dated back to the actual day on which application for the certificate was made. Accordingly, although a person may risk delay in starting on unemployment assistance because of tardiness in applying for a qualification certificate, he will run no risk of losing any of his entitlement.