§ Mr. Sproatasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many periods of two weeks duration an unemployed person is allowed to take as a holiday and receive unemployment benefit while on holiday, each year.
§ Mr. OrmeAs my reply to the hon. Member on 14th July—[Vol. 935, c.217–18]—made clear, an 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, whatever its duration. Although there are no hard and fast rules about the number of holidays for which unemployment benefit may be paid in any year, the frequency and duration of such absences would be included amongst those factors which the independent adjudicating authorities would take into account in deciding whether or not the claimant was available for work at such times.