§ 28. Mr. STEPHENasked the Minister of Labour his estimate of the average weekly number of claims for insurance benefit which will be rejected because the applicants have not been unemployed for six continuous days?
§ Mr. BETTERTONI assume the hon. Member when he speaks of rejections under the proposed new rule refers to cases in which applicants are unemployed for four, five or six days only during a particular spell of unemployment, and, therefore, do not qualify for benefit. I regret it is not possible to give an estimate of the number of such cases.
§ Mr. STEPHENCan the Minister not give some estimate in regard to these figures in connection with the new proposals that he has included in his Bill?
§ Mr. BETTERTONThe total estimate was given in the Actuary's Report, which the hon. Member remembers was 4,500,000. There is no special estimate for the circumstances which the hon. Member has in mind.
§ Mr. STEPHENCan the Minister not give us some idea of the number of people involved, the money figure, that is responsible for the actuarial statement?
§ Mr. BETTERTONI said in answer to the question that I regretted it was not possible to give the number in such cases.
§ Mr. LANSBURYBut was not any figure given by the Actuary? How did he arrive at the 4.500,000?
§ Mr. BETTERTONThe Actuary arrived at that figure of 4,500,000 by grouping all the cases together. These particular cases were not separately identified.
§ Mr. STEPHENWould the Minister give us the number of the cases grouped together upon which the Actuary based his statement?
§ Mr. BETTERTONI can give the total sum of 4,500,000.
§ Mr. STEPHENCan the Minister give the number of individuals grouped together? We could not get it in Committee. I am trying to get it here?
§ Mr. BETTERTONPerhaps the hon. Member will raise that question in Debate to-morrow.
§ Mr. STEPHENI could not get it in Committee.