asked the Minister for Social Welfare whether he is aware (i) that many recipients of unemployment assistance have had benefit discontinued because they could not produce, to the court of referees, written evidence of their having been seeking work and (ii) that it is almost impossible for men to get such written statements from gangers or builders' foremen; and, if so, whether he will have the regulation on the matter amended to cover these cases.

I am not aware that payment of unemployment assistance has been refused to persons because they could not produce documentary evidence of their efforts to get work. Such evidence has, however, been voluntarily tendered by certain applicants for unemployment assistance where doubt has arisen as to whether they satisfied the statutory condition which requires them to be genuinely seeking but unable to obtain suitable employment.