§ Mr. Wigleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will seek to amend the relevant legislation to allow those who take up seasonal work for more than three successive seasons to claim unemployment benefit at other times provided that they are properly registered as available for work at their local employment offices.
§ Mr. WhitneyA seasonal worker may receive unemployment benefit during his off season, but only if he satisfies a condition additional to those which all unemployment benefit claimants have to meet. This condition is that he has had, or can reasonably expect to obtain, a substantial amount of employment during that off season. This condition is designed to ensure that unemployment benefit is not paid to those seasonal workers who are not in employment during their off seasons. There is no practical way of distinguishing between the voluntary and involuntary seasonal worker —registration at an employment office would not be a test in itself. We therefore have no proposals for altering these arrangements. I would add that these regulations do not apply to supplementary benefit; an unemployed seasonal worker can receive benefit if otherwise eligible, though there are special rules about income earned during the on season.