§ 37. Mr. MACPHERSONasked the Minister of Labour if he is aware that members of the crews of yachts who ordinarily reside in the cities and industrial areas of the South are entitled to draw unemployment benefit at the end of the yachting season, if no other employment is available, while members of the crews who ordinarily reside in the Highlands are refused unemployment benefit when they become unemployed, even though they have been genuinely seeking employment and have paid all the contributions required of them when employed; and will he have this grievance remedied?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDThe position is not quite as stated by the right hon. Member. Unemployment benefit is only payable when the applicant is genuinely seeking work. The question whether this condition is fulfilled is one for determination not by me but by the statutory authorities, and, as a general rule, seasonal workers cannot be regarded as fulfilling this condition between seasons. Each case is, of course, considered on its merits; it may be possible for a seasonal worker to show by a record of other work in the "off" seasons that he does fulfil this condition between seasons, and it is probably the case that a dweller in an industrial area would be more likely to be able to prove this than a worker who resides in a non-industrial area. In each case, however, the determining factor would be, not the locality but the genuineness of the search for work.
§ Mr. MACPHERSONDoes my right hon. Friend think it reasonable that these men should be compelled to pay unemployment insurance contributions during their period of service and then not receive any benefit in return?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDThat is a different point. If the right hon. Gentleman will put a question on the Paper I will answer it. I think that the practice as I have stated it is the fairest. 925 You have to judge, so long as the people are in employment, whether they are purely seasonal workers, whether they get work out of the season, and whether benefit should be paid.
§ Mr. MACPHERSONIs it not a fact that all the men who come from the industrial areas of the South, when the season is over get their benefits in every case, but that if these yachtsmen belong to the Highlands, which is not an industrial area, and there is no likelihood of very much employment, they are debarred from getting any money?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDThe right hon. Gentleman has really asked his original question again. It is not a question of locality; it is a question whether the person concerned does genuinely seek work, or has been in the habit of seeking, or been presumed to seek work during the "off" season. It is obviously both right and equitable that if he is in the habit of, and can be presumed to be, seeking work in the off season, then he should have the right to benefit, but if as a rule he does not naturally seek work in the off season, he is not entitled to benefit.
§ Mr. MACPHERSONWhat is the test for seeking work? Is the right hon. Gentleman not aware that it is very easy for a man in an industrial area to prove in some form or other that he is seeking work, but that in the Highlands that is quite impossible?
§ Mr. T. JOHNSTONIs the right hon. Gentleman not aware that entire communities, like the fisher girls in the north of the Moray Firth coast, are forbidden to receive benefit, and that there is no way in which these girls can prove that they are seeking employment? Can the right hon. Gentleman say how his answer will apply to Buckie?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDIf the hon. Member will put a question on the Paper, and the facts connected with it, I shall be glad to reply.
§ Sir W. DAVISONMay I move "that this Debate be now postponed "?