Unemployment Insurance Act 1920
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1920 c. 30 |
| Year | 1920 |
Unemployment Insurance Act, 1920.
(10 & 11 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 30.
An Act to amend the Law in respect of Insurance against Unemployment.
[9th August 1920]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
Insured Persons.
Insured Persons.
1 Persons to be insured against unemployment.
1. Subject to the provisions of this Act, all persons of the age of sixteen and upwards who are engaged in any of the employments specified in Part I. of the First Schedule to this Act, not being employments specified in Part II. of that schedule (in this Act referred to as ‘employed persons’), shall be insured against unemployment in manner provided by this Act.
2 Right of insured persons to unemployment benefit.
2. Every person who being insured under this Act is unemployed and in whose case the conditions laid down by this Act (in this Act referred to as ‘statutory conditions’) are fulfilled shall be entitled, subject to the provisions of this Act, to receive payments (in this Act referred to as ‘unemployment benefit’), at weekly or other prescribed intervals, at such rates and for such periods as are authorised by or under the Second Schedule to this Act, so long as the statutory conditions continue to be fulfilled and so long as he is not disqualified under this Act for the receipt of unemployment benefit.
3 Exemptions.
(1) Where any employed person proves that he is either—
(a ) in receipt of any pension or income of the annual value of twenty-six pounds or upwards, which does not depend on his personal exertions; or
(b ) ordinarily and mainly dependent for his livelihood upon some other person; or
(c ) ordinarily and mainly dependent for his livelihood on the earnings derived by him from an occupation employment in which does not make him an employed person within the meaning of this Act,
he shall be entitled to a certificate exempting him from liability to become or to continue to be insured under this Act.
(2) All claims for exemption shall be made to and certificates of exemption granted by the Minister in the prescribed manner and subject to the prescribed conditions, and may be so made and granted before as well as after the commencement of this Act:
Provided that regulations under this Act may provide that any certificates of exemption granted under section two of the National Insurance Act, 1911 , or any class of such certificates, shall have effect as if they had been granted under this section as well as under that section.
4 Power to extend Act to excepted employments.
(1) The Minister may, with the approval of the Treasury, by order provide for including among the persons employed within the meaning of this Act any persons engaged in any of the excepted employments specified in Part II. of the First Schedule to this Act, or any class or description of the persons so engaged, either unconditionally or subject to such conditions as may be specified in the order.
(2) Before any such order is made a draft thereof shall be laid before each House of Parliament for a period of not less than twenty days during which the House is sitting, and if either House, before the expiration of that period presents an Address to His Majesty against the draft or any part thereof, no further proceedings shall be taken thereon, but without prejudice to the making of any new draft order.
Contributions.
Contributions.
5 Contributions by employed persons, employers, and the Treasury.
(1) The funds required for providing unemployment benefit and for making any other payments which under this Act are to be made out of the unemployment fund established under this Act shall be derived partly from contributions by employed persons, partly from contributions by the employers of those persons, and partly from moneys provided by Parliament.
(2) Subject to the provisions of this Act, every employed person and every employer of any such person shall be liable to pay contributions at the rates specified in Part I. of the Third Schedule to this Act.
(3) There shall, subject to the provisions of this section, be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament in respect of each weekly contribution paid by an employer in respect of a man, woman, boy or girl, a contribution at the ordinary rate specified in Part II. of the Third Schedule to this Act as regards men, women, boys and girls, respectively, and the sums to be contributed in any year shall be paid in such manner and at such times as the Treasury may determine.
For the purpose of calculating the amount of the contribution under this subsection, while and in so far as contributions are paid by means of unemployment insurance stamps, the number of contributions paid in respect of men, women, boys and girls, respectively, in any year shall be deemed to be represented by the number of stamps appropriate to contributions by men, women, boys and girls, respectively, sold in that year, after deducting—
(a ) the number (calculated in the prescribed manner) of stamps of each class which have been used for the purpose of paying contributions otherwise than under the general provisions of this Act; and
(b ) the number of stamps of each class in respect of which a refund has been made; and
(c ) such contributions as have been returned in respect of persons in respect of whom contributions were paid under the erroneous belief that they were payable in respect of those persons under the general provisions of this Act.
(4) Except where regulations under this Act otherwise prescribe, the employer shall in the first instance be liable to pay both the contribution payable by himself (in this Act referred to as ‘the employer's contribution’) and also, on behalf of and to the exclusion of the employed person, the contribution payable by that person, and subject to any such regulations shall be entitled to recover from the employed person, by deduction from his wages or otherwise, the amount of the contributions so paid by him on behalf of the employed person in accordance with the rules set out in the Fourth Schedule to this Act.
(5) Contributions shall not be payable in respect of any person who is in receipt of an old-age pension under the Old Age Pensions Act, 1908 to 1919.
(6) Where it has been decided by the Minister in manner provided by this Act that contributions under this Act are not payable in respect of any person or any class of persons, and that decision is subsequently revised or reversed on appeal so as to make contributions payable in respect of that person or that class of persons, contributions shall be so payable only as from the date on which the decision was so revised or reversed.
(7) The employer of a person who, though an employed person within the meaning of this Act, is not insured under this Act by reason that he has obtained and holds a certificate of exemption under this Act shall be liable to pay the like contributions as would have been payable by him as employer's contributions if that person had been a person liable to be insured under this Act, and regulations made under this Act may provide that in the event of that person subsequently becoming so insured every two contributions paid in respect of him under this subsection shall be treated as if they had been one full contribution paid in respect of him as an employed person under the other provisions of this Act.
The contributions to be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament in respect of contributions paid under this subsection in respect of exempt persons shall be at the rates specified in Part II. of the Third Schedule to this Act in reference to such persons.
6 Power to make regulations as to payment of contributions.
6. Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Minister may make regulations providing for any matters incidental to the payment and collection of contributions payable under this Act, and in particular for—
Unemployment Benefit.
Unemployment Benefit.
7 Statutory conditions for receipt of unemployment benefit.
(1) The statutory conditions for the receipt of unemployment benefit by a person insured under this Act (in this Act referred to as ‘an insured contributor’) are—
(i) that he proves that not less than twelve contributions have been paid in respect of him under this Act;
(ii) that he has made application for unemployment benefit in the prescribed manner, and proves that since the date of the application he has been continuously unemployed;
(iii) that he is capable of and available for work, but unable to obtain suitable employment;
(iv) that he has not exhausted his right to unemployment benefit...
To continue reading
Request your trial