Unemployment Insurance Act 1935
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1935 c. 8 |
| Year | 1935 |
Unemployment Insurance Act, 1935
(25 & 26 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 8.
An Act to consolidate the Unemployment Insurance Acts, 1920 to 1934, and certain other enactments relating to those Acts.
[26th February 1935]
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:—
Part I.
Insured Persons.
1 Persons to be insured against unemployment.
1. Subject to the provisions of this Act, all persons of either sex, whether British subjects or not, being persons who have attained the minimum age for entry into insurance under this Act and are employed in insurable employment, shall be insured against unemployment in manner provided by this Act.
2 Minimum age for entry into insurance.
2. The minimum age for entry into insurance under this Act shall be the age (not being less than fourteen years) when a person attains the age at which, under the law for the time being in force, his parents cease to be under an obligation to cause him to attend school, or, in Scotland, to receive efficient education, unless there is some reasonable excuse.
3 Insurable employment.
(1) For the purposes of this Act every employment specified in Part I of the First Schedule to this Act is an insurable employment, unless it is an excepted employment, that is to say, either—
(a ) an employment specified in Part II of that Schedule; or
(b ) an employment to which Part III of that Schedule applies and which is certified by the Minister under that Part of that Schedule; or
(c ) an employment included among or added to the excepted employments by regulations made under this section.
(2) Where it appears to the Minister that the terms and conditions of service of, and the nature of the work performed by, any class of persons employed in an excepted employment are so similar to the terms and conditions of service of, and the nature of the work performed by, a class of persons employed in an insurable employment as to result in anomalies in the operation of this Act, the Minister may, by regulations made with the consent of the Treasury, either unconditionally or subject to such conditions as may be specified in the regulations, either—
(a ) provide for including the class of persons employed in insurable employment among the classes of persons employed in excepted employment; or
(b ) provide for including the class of persons employed in excepted employment among the classes of persons employed in insurable employment.
(3) The Minister may by regulations provide—
(a ) for adding, subject to such exceptions and conditions as he thinks fit, any class of employment to the excepted employments only as respects persons who are in any week employed in that class of employment to such extent (being in the opinion of the Minister inconsiderable) as may be specified in the regulations; and
(b ) for permitting persons who are employed under the same employer partly in insurable employment and partly in same other employment, to be treated for the purposes of this Act with the consent of the employer as if they were wholly employed in insurable employment; and
(c ) that, subject to any prescribed conditions, where persons in the employment of a person resident or having his principal place of business in Great Britain are employed outside the United Kingdom, for the purpose of the execution of some particular work, in employment which, if it were employment in Great Britain would be insurable employment, they shall, if they were immediately before leaving Great Britain insured contributors, be deemed for the purposes of this Act to be, subject to any prescribed modifications or exceptions, employed in insurable employment.
(4) Where in consequence of an arrangement made by a poor law authority a person is engaged in work provided by a local authority, he shall not, if a contribution towards his remuneration is made by the poor law authority, be deemed to be employed in insurable employment:
Provided that this subsection shall not apply in the case of any person who has previously been in receipt of benefit and is employed in full-time work provided by the local authority, but, for the purpose of this proviso, a person shall not be deemed to have been employed in full-time work unless he has worked for such number of hours in each week as would normally have been worked by him if he had been employed on the same work otherwise than under such an arrangement as aforesaid.
4 Determination of questions as to insurability.
(1) If any question arises—
(a ) as to whether any employment or any class of employment is or will be insurable employment; or
(b ) as to whether a person is or was an employed person;
that question shall be decided by the Minister subject to the provisions of section eighty-four of this Act.
(2) In determining any question as to whether any occupation in which a person is or has been employed is or was insurable employment, regard shall be had to the nature of the work on which he is or was employed rather than to the business of the person by whom he is or was employed.
5 Excluded persons.
(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 which is not insurable employment; or
(d ) a person employed in an occupation which is of a seasonal nature and does not ordinarily extend over more than eighteen weeks in any year and who is not ordinarily employed in any other occupation which is insurable employment;
he shall be entitled to a certificate exempting him from liability to become or to continue to be insured under this Act and while holding such a certificate shall not be insured under this Act.
(2) All claims for certificates under this section shall be made to, and all such certificates shall be granted by, the Minister in the prescribed manner and subject to the prescribed conditions:
Provided that the Minister may by regulations provide that any certificates of exemption granted under section two of the National Health Insurance Act, 1924 , or any class of such certificates shall have effect as if they had been granted under this section as well as under that section.
(3) The following persons, shall not be insured under this Act, that is to say,—
(a ) persons who have attained the age of sixty-five years;
(b ) persons under the age of sixty-five years to whom the Second Schedule to this Act applies;
(c ) blind persons in receipt of a pension under the Old Age Pensions Acts, 1908 to 1924, as extended by section one of the Blind Persons Act, 1920 .
(4) Section eighty-nine of the National Health Insurance Act, 1924 (which provided for the determination by the Minister of Health of questions relating to employment) shall apply for the purposes of this Act to any question—
(a ) whether any employment or class of employment was such an employment as is mentioned in sub-paragraph (a ) of paragraph 1 or subparagraph (a ) of paragraph 2 of the said Second Schedule or any particular class of such an employment; and
(b ) whether a person has been a person employed in such an employment; and
(c ) as to who was the employer of a person employed in such an employment,
in like maImer as if the question related to an employment within the meaning of that Act.
Part II.
Contributions.
Preliminary.
6 Source of contributions.
6. Subject to the provisions of this Act, the funds required for providing 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.
7 Modification of provisions as to contributions in case of certain excluded persons.
7. The provisions of this Act relating to the payment of contributions shall, in the case of contributions payable in respect of persons who have attained the age of sixty-five years or to whom the Second Schedule to this Act applies, have effect subject to such modifications and adaptations as may be prescribed by the Minister after consultation as respects England with the Minister of Health and as respects Scotland with the Department of Health for Scotland, so however that all sums collected on account of contributions so payable shall be paid into the Unemployment Fund.
Contributions of Employers and Employed Persons.
8 Liability of employers and employed persons for contribution.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, every employed person (other than an excluded person) of the classes set out in the first column of the Third Schedule to this Act, and every employer of any such person, shall be liable to pay weekly contributions at the respective rates set out in the second and third columns of that Schedule.
(2) Except where regulations under this Act otherwise prescribe, the employer shall, in the first instance, be...
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