§ 40. Mr. CRAVEN-ELLISasked the Minister of Labour whether he will have made a complete investigation of the unemployment registers to find out how many of those on the registers at the date of the next monthly report are for any reason unfit for regular employment; and will he consider deleting from the live register those who are found to be unfit for work?
§ The MINISTER of LABOUR (Mr. Ernest Brown)It is a condition for the receipt of unemployment benefit or unemployment allowances that claimants shall prove that they are capable of, and available for, work. Subject to this, I have no power to require persons registering as applicants for employment to satisfy a test in order to determine 995 whether they are unfit for regular employment, even if it were possible to define that expression with sufficient precision. As regards the second part of the question, I have no reason to suppose that persons who are completely unfit for work remain on the register. There are always a number whose capacity for work is for various reasons very limited, but it is very difficult to identify them accurately, and in any event I have no authority to strike their names off the register or to refuse them such assistance in finding employment as the exchange may be able to give.