§ 28. Sir Anthony Meyerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will review the arrangements whereby workers declared redundant are ineligible for unemployment benefit if the firm in which they work is concerned in an industrial stoppage.
§ Mr. PrenticeI am aware of concern about this issue; but the long-standing rule that a claimant declared redundant whose employment has not terminated before a trade dispute begins is dealt with in the same way as other workers who have lost employment because of a trade dispute at their place of employment seems to me broadly right. As my hon. Friend knows, workers receiving payment in lieu of594W notice are in any event not eligible for unemployment benefit. My hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State will be writing to my hon. Friend about this problem.