§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Employment whether his Department has a record of previous unemployment in the case of individual insured workers; and over what period such records are available.
§ Mr. Michael AlisonThe unemployment benefit service normally retains records of claims for unemployment benefit and credits of contributions for three years after the last claim. Some papers that have served their purpose are destroyed earlier and others are retained longer, for example if there is an outstanding overpayment to be recovered. After three years limited information is available from the central records office of the Department of Health and Social Security which maintains records of national insurance contributions.