§ Mr. Fallonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will instruct his Department's offices to deduct Territorial Army earnings from benefits due to unemployed persons after and not before payment for training has been received.
§ Dr. BoysonUnemployment benefit is not payable for any day on which a claimant is engaged in any employment with earnings exceeding £2 for that day. This is because such days—when the claimant is engaged in employment which cannot be regarded as minimal—are not to be treated as days of unemployment. We have no plans to amend the law in this respect, which would have repercussions for other national insurance benefits. As regards supplementary benefit, different considerations apply, and that benefit is not reduced until earnings, whether from Territorial Army or other activities, are received.
526W
§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will estimate the percentage of the unemployed who are actually receiving unemployment benefit.
§ Dr. BoysonThis information is given in the "Quarterly Analysis of Unemployed Claimants", a copy of which is in the Library of the House. That shows that at August 1983, the latest date for which information is available, 31.2 per cent. of unemployed claimants were currently receiving unemployment benefit. Another 7.1 per cent. had claimed unemployment benefit, but their claims had not yet been determined on the day the count was made.