§ 75. Mr. Parkerasked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he is aware that the introduction of Giro payment of unemployment benefit has led to an immediate loss of two days' benefit to the unemployed; and what action he is taking to rectify this.
§ Mr. Dudley SmithThe introduction of Giro payment does not lead to any loss of unemployment benefit. An important advantage of Giro payment is that it enables the work of making payments to be spread evenly throughout the week and a better service to be provided to the public. To achieve these improvements it is usually necessary to re-phase the benefit weeks of some claimants. In the week of the change this may result in four or five days benefit being paid instead of the normal six days, but such payments would be made correspondingly earlier than the normal pay day. Once the change has been made payments are resumed on a normal six-day basis.
Such changes are kept to a minimum and the employment exchange reduces the inconvenience to those affected by giving at least two weeks notice of the change and if possible by phasing the introduction of the new benefit weeks. There are also special arrangements with the Department of Health and Social Security to provide for any reported cases of hardship.