Social Welfare Act, 1995

Unemployment assistance (rates of payment and calculation of means).

16.—(1) Section 121 (1) of the Principal Act is hereby amended by the substitution for paragraph (a) of the following paragraph:

“(a) in the case of a person who—

(i) in any continuous period of unemployment, as construed in accordance with section 120 (3), has been in receipt of unemployment benefit or unemployment assistance for not less than 390 days, or

(ii) immediately before the day for which unemployment assistance is claimed, was in receipt of lone parent's allowance, but has ceased to be entitled to such allowance by virtue of his no longer being regarded as a lone parent within the meaning of section 157 (1),

the weekly rate set out in column (2) at reference l (a) in Part I of the Fourth Schedule,”.

(2) Section 121 (3) of the Principal Act is hereby amended by the substitution of “£25” for “£10” (inserted by section 22 of the Act of 1994) in both places where it occurs.

(3) The Principal Act is hereby amended by—

(a) the substitution in section 122 (6) for “In subsection (4)” of “In this section”, and

(b) the substitution for Rule 3 of Part I of the Third Schedule of the following Rule:

“3. For the purposes of Rules 1 and 2 ‘spouse’ means—

(a) each person of a married couple who are living together, or

(b) a man and woman who are not married to each other but are cohabiting together as husband and wife.”.

(4) Section 124 of the Principal Act is hereby amended by the substitution for “subparagraph (ii) of section 121 (1) (b)” of “section 121 (1)” in both places where it occurs.

(5) Subsection (2) of this section shall come into operation on the 7th day of June, 1995.