HC Deb 13 December 1968 vol 775 cc226-7W
Mr. Waddington

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services why police officers leaving the force on completion of service for maximum pension and willing to take, but unable to find alternative employment are denied unemployment benefit for six weeks.

Mr. Swingler

It is a well-established rule of unemployment insurance, now embodied in Section 22 (2) (a) of the National Insurance Act, 1965, that a person who has voluntarily left his employment without just cause shall be disqualified for receiving unemployment benefit for a period not exceeding six weeks. Police officers who leave the force and claim unemployment benefit are subject to this rule in the same way as other claimants.

Whether a person had just cause for leaving his employment and, if not, the period of disqualification are matters for the independent adjudicating authorities who decide all claims to unemployment benefit.