§ 3. Mr. LAWTHERasked the Minister of Labour if she will give the number of cases in which claims for unemployment benefit were considered, allowed, and disallowed by boards of assessors in the administrative County of Durham since their formation, and a comparable period for similar decisions given by the courts of referees prior to the establishment of the boards of assessors?
§ Miss BONDFIELDAs this reply is long and contains a tabular statement, I will, if I may, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ Following is the reply:
§ The boards of assessors make recommendations to the insurance officer for the purpose of the initial decision by him on the question whether the claimant is genuinely seeking work or satisfies the transitional conditions that he is normally employed in an insured trade and has had a reasonable period of employment in the past two years. The number of cases dealt with by boards of assessors in the County of Durham in the period of 17 weeks from 9th September, 1929, to 6th January, 1930, was as follows:
| County of Durham. | ||
| — | September, 1928 to 14th January, 1929 (18 weeks). | 10th September, 1929 to 13th January, 1930 (18 weeks). |
| Disallowances by Insurance Officer on grounds of not g nuinely seeking work and transitional conditions. | 8,121 | 3,707* |
| † Cases dealt with by Courts of Referees on all grounds of disallowance:— | ||
| Total number of cases considered | 5,344 | 3,991 |
| Numbers recommended for Allowance | 3,048 | 1,596 |
| Disallowance | 2,296 | 2,395 |
| * These include certain types of cases which, under the procedure, are not dealt with in the first place by Boards of Assessors. | ||
| † The district served by these Courts include North Shields, Shiremoor, and Whitley Bay (Northumberland), Northallerton, Richmond and Thirsk (Yorkshire). |