§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the conditions upon which a long-term unemployed person can be eligible for long-term supplementary benefit rates.
§ Mr. OrmeNo unemployed person who is required by the Supplementary Benefits Commission to register for employment as a condition of receiving a supplementary allowance is eligible for the long-term rate. Those not required to register include men and women solely responsible for the care of dependent children, blind people unaccustomed to working outside the home, people incapable of work and people who while not incapable of work are so disabled that they are for practical purposes unemployable. At the Commission's discretion people caring for sick relatives and women widowed in late middle age with no employment experience and suffering from ill-health may also qualify.
§ Mr. Sproatasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he has recently ordered to be extended the length of time an unemployed person can go on holiday and still claim unemployment benefit while on holiday; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Sproatasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what estimate he has 218W made of the extra cut in benefits of extending the length of time an unemployed person can go on holiday and claim unemployment benefit while he is on holiday, as recently extended by his Department.
§ Mr. OrmeAn unemployed person may receive unemployment benefit in respect of a period of temporary absence from home while on holiday in Great Britain or Northern Ireland only if he can prove that he was available for work throughout the period concerned. To do this the claimant must have taken reasonable steps to ensure that he could receive without delay any notification of suitable employment that might be made to him, and he must have been ready, willing and able to curtail his holiday at once in order to accept such employment. There is no hard-and-fast rule as to the length of absence for which employment benefit may he paid, and reference to the independent adjudicating authorities would always be made if the claimant's availability was in doubt, whatever the length of the absence. I have no proposals for changing these arrangements.