§ Mr. JOHN WARDasked the President of the Board of Trade whether a trade union will be able to pay the full unemployed benefit under Part II. of the National Insurance Act to a member who is in arrears to the union sufficient to prevent the member from having any claim to his trade union unemployed pay; and will the trade union have the right to reclaim from the State Unemployment Fund the full sum which the member would be entitled to receive from such fund had he not been a member of such trade union?
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Mr. BUXTONI presume that my hon. Friend refers to the case of a trade union which has made an arrangement under Section 105 of the National Insurance Act. There is nothing in the National Insurance Act to prevent such a trade union from paying to a member whose union contributions are in arrears an amount equal to any unemployment benefit to which he would have been entitled from the State had no such arrangement been made. If the rules of the trade union do not admit of this being done, it is open to the union to take steps to amend the rules. A trade union would be able to recover from the Unemployment Fund the full amount so paid provided that the total amount of the refund is not more than three-fourths of the aggregate amount of unemployment benefit which it has paid to its members compulsorily insured under Part II. of the Act.