Mr. EDGAR HORNEasked the President of the Board of Trade whether a refusal to accept an offer of work in the Midlands, 125 miles away from his home in Guildford, debars W. G. Goddard, a bricklayer, living at Guildford, in Surrey, with his four children, from receiving unemployment benefit
Mr. ROBERTSONThe Act requires as a condition of receipt of unemployment benefit, that a workman shall be unable to obtain suitable employment. Whether in any particular case an offer of work at a distance from a. workman's home is suitable or unsuitable is a question of fact dependent on the nature of the work offered, the distance, the home circumstances of the applicant, and other considerations, which can only be properly determined in eases like that referred to in the question by a Court of Referees. In the case mentioned in the question, I understand that the workman has not exercised his right of appeal to a Court 2261W of Referees, and if he will call at the local office at which he made his claim, the procedure of appeal, which is very simple, will be explained to him. In the meantime, it would not be proper for me to express any opinion on the merits of the ease.