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46 1933

UNEMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE ACT, 1933

PART III.

Unemployment Assistance.

Right to receive unemployment assistance.

14. —(1) Any person who is the holder of a qualification certificate may, subject to the provisions of this section, apply in the prescribed manner for unemployment assistance.

(2) Where an application for unemployment assistance is duly made by a person for the time being entitled under the immediately preceding sub-section to make such application and such person delivers to an unemployment assistance officer his qualification certificate and satisfies such officer in the prescribed manner that he complies with the statutory conditions, such person shall, so long as he continues to comply with the statutory conditions and is not disqualified under this Act for receiving unemployment assistance, be entitled, subject to the provisions of this Act, to receive payments (in this Act referred to as unemployment assistance) at such times, in such manner, and at such rate as is or are or shall be appointed by or under this Act.

(3) No application for unemployment assistance shall be made by any person unless and until so much of this Act as authorises persons to apply for unemployment assistance has come into force in relation to the area within which such person resides.

(4) When a person is for the time being in receipt of unemployment assistance the qualification certificate of such person shall be retained at the prescribed place, during the prescribed time and in the prescribed manner.

The statutory conditions.

15. —(1) The following conditions are referred to in this Act as the statutory conditions and shall, subject to the provisions of this Act (including this section) be the conditions to be complied with by the holder of a qualification certificate in order to entitle him to receive unemployment assistance, that is to say:—

(a) that such holder proves in the prescribed manner that since the date of his application for unemployment assistance he has been continuously unemployed;

(b) that such holder is capable of work and is available for and genuinely seeking but is unable to obtain employment suitable for him having regard to his age, sex, physique, education, normal occupation, place of residence, and family circumstances;

(c) that since his qualification certificate was issued to him he has not done anything and no change of circumstances or other event has occurred which would invalidate such certificate or would disentitle him to hold such certificate;

(d) if he has been duly required by an unemployment assistance officer to attend a course of instruction appointed or approved by regulations made under this Part of this Act, that he has duly attended such course in accordance with such requisition;

(e) in the case of a person applying for unemployment assistance in an urban area that either he has been ordinarily resident in such urban area for at least one year before his latest application for unemployment assistance or has had at least three months' employment in such urban area within one year before such latest application;

(f) in the case of a widow or spinster who has no dependant, that not less than fifty-two contributions have been paid in respect of her under the Unemployment Insurance Acts, 1920 to 1930, as amended by any subsequent enactment, during the period of four years immediately preceding the date of her application for unemployment assistance.

(2) A person shall not be deemed to have failed to comply with the statutory conditions by reason only that he has declined an offer of employment in a situation vacant in consequence of a stoppage of work due to a trade dispute.

Disqualifications for receiving unemployment assistance.

16. —(1) A person shall be disqualified for receiving unemployment assistance—

(a) while he is resident, whether temporarily or permanently, outside Saorstát Eireann, and

(b) while he is undergoing imprisonment or detention in any prison or other place of detention maintained wholly or partly out of public funds, and

(c) while he is an inmate of any institution maintained wholly or partly out of public moneys or by a local authority, and

(d) while he is in receipt of or entitled to a pension under section 6 of the Old Age Pensions Act, 1932 (No. 18 of 1932), or any sickness or disablement allowance under the National Health Insurance Acts, 1911 to 1933, or unemployment benefit under the Unemployment Insurance Acts, 1920 to 1930, or any benefit under a special scheme under section 18 of the Unemployment Insurance Act, 1920, or under section 19 of that Act or under a supplementary scheme under section 20 of that Act.

(2) Where a person loses his employment through his misconduct, or voluntarily leaves his employment without just cause, such person shall—

(a) in case he is an insured contributor under the Unemployment Insurance Acts, 1920 to 1930, and is entitled to unemployment benefit on the expiration of the period of disqualification for receiving unemployment benefit fixed by sub-section (2) of section 8 of the Unemployment Insurance Act, 1920, be disqualified for receiving unemployment assistance for the period during which he is disqualified for receiving unemployment benefit and also for the period of six weeks as from the date on which his right to receive unemployment benefit expires, and

(b) in any other case, be disqualified for receiving unemployment assistance for the period of three months from the date on which he lost or so left his employment.

(3) Where a person has been convicted of any offence under any section of this Act, such person shall be disqualified for receiving unemployment assistance during the period of three months, or such lesser period (not being less than six weeks) as may be prescribed, from the date on which he is so convicted.

(4) Where a person has been convicted of any crime or offence (other than an offence under a section of this Act) and has on such conviction been sentenced to imprisonment for any term not less than one fortnight, such person shall be disqualified for receiving unemployment assistance for the period of three months from the date on which he is so convicted or for the period of his imprisonment, whichever is the longer.

(5) A person who lost employment by reason of a stoppage of work which was due to a trade dispute at the factory, workshop or other premises at which he was employed, shall be disqualified for receiving unemployment assistance so long as the stoppage of work continues, except in the case where he has, during the stoppage of work, become bona fide employed elsewhere in the occupation which he usually follows or has become regularly engaged in some other occupation

Where separate branches of work which are commonly carried on as separate businesses in separate premises are in any case carried on in separate departments of the same premises, each of those departments shall, for the purposes of this sub-section, be deemed to be a separate factory or workshop or separate premises, as the case may be.

(6) In this section the word “imprisonment” includes penal servitude.

Rates of unemployment assistance.

17. —(1) In this section the expression “scheduled rate” means the rate of unemployment assistance stated in the Schedule to this Act which is, in the circumstances for the time being existing, applicable to the person in respect of whom the expression is used.

(2) Whenever a person is entitled under this Act to receive unemployment assistance, such assistance shall be given to him in the form of a money payment at whichever of the following rates is applicable, that is to say:—

(a) if he has no means or if he has means not exceeding two shillings per week, at the scheduled rate; and

(b) if he has means exceeding two shillings per week, at a rate equal to the scheduled rate reduced by one shilling per week for every shilling or part of a shilling by which the means of such person exceeds two shillings per week.

(3) Whenever in the calculation of the rate at which unemployment assistance is payable to a person, the weekly amount by which the scheduled rate is to be reduced is equal to or exceeds the weekly amount of the scheduled rate, no unemployment assistance shall be payable to such person.

(4) The means of any person for the purpose of this section shall be taken to be the means of such person as stated in the qualification certificate for the time being held by him.

Variation of the rates of unemployment assistance.

18. —The Minister, with the concurrence of the Minister for Finance, may at any time or times by order reduce all or any of the rates of unemployment assistance stated in the Schedule to this Act or previously reduced under this section, and if any such order is so made all references in this Act to the rates of unemployment assistance stated in the Schedule to this Act shall be construed as referring to those rates with and subject to the reductions thereof under this section for the time being in force.

Payment of unemployment assistance.

19. —The following provisions shall have effect in relation to the payment of unemployment assistance, that is to say:—

(a) no unemployment assistance shall be payable in respect of the first six days of continuous unemployment in any continuous period of unemployment;

(b) no unemployment assistance shall be paid for any period less than one day;

(c) for the purposes of this Part of this Act, no time prior to the relevant application for unemployment assistance shall be reckoned as or as part of a period of unemployment;

(d) no time during which a person is disqualified for receiving unemployment assistance shall be reckoned in the computation of any period of unemployment of such person;

(e) subject to the provisions of this Act (including this section), unemployment assistance shall be paid at the prescribed times and in the prescribed manner.

Determination of applications for unemployment assistance.

20. —(1) Every application for unemployment assistance shall be received and considered by an unemployment assistance officer and every such application and every question arising thereon or in relation thereto (including in particular the question whether the statutory conditions have been or continue to be complied with and the question whether a person is or is not disqualified for receiving unemployment assistance) shall be determined by an unemployment assistance officer and such determination by such officer shall, subject to the provisions of this section, be final.

(2) An unemployment assistance officer may, if he so thinks proper, instead of determining it himself, refer in the prescribed manner any application or question which falls to be determined by him under this section to a court of referees.

(3) Any person aggrieved by the refusal by an unemployment assistance officer of an application by such person for unemployment assistance or by the allowance by any such officer of unemployment assistance to such person at a lesser rate than was claimed by him, or, by the stoppage or reduction in rate by any such officer of unemployment assistance theretofore paid to such person may within twenty-one days after such refusal, allowance stoppage or reduction, or such further time (if any) as may in his case be allowed by the Minister, and in the prescribed manner, require such officer to report such refusal, allowance, stoppage, or reduction to a court of referees and thereupon such officer shall report in the prescribed manner in accordance with such requisition.

(4) Every court of referees shall consider every matter referred or reported to them under this section and shall make to the unemployment assistance officer concerned such recommendations in regard thereto as they think proper, and thereupon such officer shall give effect to such recommendations unless he disagrees therewith.

(5) Whenever an unemployment assistance officer disagrees with a recommendation made by a court of referees to him under this section, such officer shall, if so requested by such court, refer the matter in the prescribed manner to the Umpire.

(6) Where a recommendation has been made under this section by a court of referees to an unemployment assistance officer, any association of employed persons of which the person to whom such recommendation relates is a member or (with the leave of the court of referees) the said person may himself within twenty-one days after such recommendation or such further time (if any) as may in his case be allowed by the Minister require such officer to refer the matter to the Umpire, and thereupon such officer shall refer the matter in the prescribed manner to the Umpire.

(7) The Umpire shall determine every matter referred to him under this section and his determination thereon shall be final and conclusive.

(8) An unemployment assistance officer may at any time, on account of new evidence being submitted to him or new facts coming to his knowledge, reverse or revise any determination previously made by him under this section, and the provisions of this section in relation to the reference or report of matters to a court of referees or to the Umpire shall apply to such reversal or revision in like manner as they applied to the original determination.

(9) The Umpire may at any time, on account of new evidence having been submitted to him, reverse or revise any determination previously made by him under this section.

(10) Every action of an unemployment assistance officer in pursuance of a recommendation made to him by a court of referees, every determination by the Umpire, and every reversal or revision of a previous determination by any such officer or by the Umpire shall, if such action, determination, reversal, or revision has the effect of allowing unemployment assistance previously refused or increasing unemployment assistance previously allowed, have effect as from the date of the original determination by the unemployment assistance officer or such later date (if any) as may, in case of a determination, reversal or revision by the Umpire, be fixed by the Umpire or, in any other case, by the unemployment assistance officer

Courts of referees and the Umpire.

21. —(1) Every court of referees for the time being subsisting under and for the purposes of the Unemployment Insurance Act, 1920, as amended or extended by subsequent enactments shall be a court of referees for the purposes of this Act, and accordingly in this Act the expression “court of referees” means a court of referees so subsisting.

(2) The Umpire for the time being appointed and acting under and for the purposes of the Unemployment Insurance Act, 1920, as amended or extended by subsequent enactments shall be the Umpire for the purposes of this Act, and accordingly in this Act the expression “the Umpire” means the Umpire so appointed and acting.

(3) Regulations made by the Minister under this Act may prescribe the practice and procedure to be observed by courts of referees and the Umpire respectively in the performance of their respective functions under this Act, and may apply to proceedings before a court of referees or before the Umpire all or any of the provisions of the Common Law Procedure Amendment Act (Ireland), 1856, relating to arbitration.

Regulations in respect of courses of instruction.

22. —The Minister may by regulations made by him under this section after consultation with the Minister for Education, make provision for the attendance of unemployed persons at courses of instruction in pursuance of requisitions by unemployment assistance officers and may by such regulations appoint or approve of courses of instruction for that purpose.

Unemployment assistance to be inalienable.

23. —Subject to the provisions of this Act, every assignment of, or charge on, and every agreement to assign or charge unemployment assistance shall be void, and on the bankruptcy of, any person entitled to unemployment assistance, the rights to such unemployment assistance shall not pass to any trustee or other person acting on behalf of his creditors.