asked the Minister for Social Welfare if unemployment benefit will be paid to a person (name supplied) in County Meath who considers that he has paid more than 78 contributions in the past three years and who was employed by Meath County Council for most of 1974.
Ceisteanna-Questions. Oral Answers. - Non-Payment of Unemployment Benefit.
52.
A claim for unemployment benefit dated 18th January, 1975, made by the person in question was disallowed by a decision of a deciding officer. In addition to his intermittent insurable employment, the insured person is a farmer. Statutory regulations provide that where a person has another occupation, as in this case, from which the remuneration or profit is more than £1 per day, he cannot be paid unemployment benefit unless at least 78 employment contributions have been paid in respect of him in a given period of three years prior to his claim. In this case the profit from the farm is well above the statutory maximum and the claimant does not satisfy the contribution requirement mentioned. The claimant lodged an appeal on 14th February, 1975, and he will be informed of the result of the appeal as soon as possible.
Can the Parliamentary Secretary say whether the 1974 card which was supplied to the Department by the local authority for which this man worked has been taken into account because, with this card, there would be the statutory 78 stamps?
I understand that the 1974 contributions on behalf of this person have been taken into consideration.
They had not been taken into consideration when the application for benefit was first refused.
My information is that all his stamps were taken into consideration.
When the application was refused, the 1974 cards had not been sent in because the local authority only gave the card to the man after the refusal. The applicant supplied that card to the Department in the following week, which would have been last week. Therefore, I expect that the 1974 card was not taken into consideration and, consequently, I ask the Parliamentary Secretary to look again at this case so that the man may be paid his benefit and not have to wait to go through the appeals machinery, which operation can take quite a while.
The fact that the applicant had not enough contributions without the 1974 card being taken into consideration would not mean necessarily that he would have sufficient contributions, even allowing for 1974. I understand that the person concerned had a total of 74 contributions during the relevant three contribution years—1972 to 1974 inclusive —and that up to the date of his claim, 18th January, 1975, there were 73 stamps. However, if the Deputy wishes I shall have the case re-examined but I should not wish to raise false hopes on behalf of the claimant.
53.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare why unemployment assistance was not paid to a person (name supplied) in County Offaly.
Unemployment assistance was not paid to the person named as it was decided by a deciding officer that the person's weekly rate of means, assessed for the purposes of the Unemployment Assistance Acts, exceeded the scheduled rate of unemployment assistance payable to a single man without dependants. It is open to the person in question if he so desires to appeal against the decision to an appeals officer.
54.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare why unemployment benefit has not been paid to a person (name supplied) in County Laois.
The person in question, who made a claim for unemployment benefit on 6th January, 1975, was by decision of a deciding officer disqualified for the receipt of benefit for a period of six weeks from 20th December, 1974, on the ground that he lost his employment on that date through his own fault. It is open to him, if he so desires, to appeal against the disqualification. His title to unemployment benefit has in any event been admitted from the expiration of the six weeks' disqualification.