§ Mr. MACLEANasked the Minister of Labour the number of unemployed on the unemployed register at the end of January, 1926; the number who were in receipt of unemployment benefit; and the number who were refused benefit under the following grounds: not genuinely seeking employment, not expedient in the public interest, and not likely to be employed again in insurable occupation?
860W
§ Mr. BETTERTONThe number of persons on the registers of Employment Exchanges in Great Britain on 25th January, 1926, was 1,200,827. Of these 1,122,605 had current claims to benefit, but I am unable to say how many were actually in receipt of benefit at that date. In the period 25th August, 1925 to 11th January, 1926, the number of applications for extended benefit which were recommended by local employment committees for disallowance on the ground that the claimants were not making every reasonable effort to obtain suitable employment or were not willing to accept suitable employment was 47,950, the corresponding figure in respect of applicants for whom insurable employment was not likely to be available being 8,906. The numbers disallowed under the administrative rules under the heading "not expedient in the public interest" was 73,604.