Employment Protection Act 1975

112 Entitlement to unemployment benefit and recoupment of that benefit and supplementary benefit

(1) Section 139(1) of the Social Security Act 1975 (submission of regulations in draft to the National Insurance Advisory Committee) shall not apply to regulations made under that Act and contained in a statutory instrument which states that the regulations provide only that a day in respect of which there is payable a particular description of any payment to which this section applies shall not be treated as a day of unemployment for the purposes of entitlement to unemployment benefit.

(2) The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision for all or any of the purposes mentioned in this subsection with respect to payments to which this section applies and which are the subject of proceedings before an industrial tribunal, that is to say—

(a) enabling the Secretary of State to recover from an employer, by way of total or partial recoupment of unemployment benefit or supplementary benefit, a sum not exceeding the amount of the prescribed element of the monetary award ;

(b) requiring or authorising the tribunal to order the payment of such a sum, by way of total or partial recoupment of either benefit, to the Secretary of State instead of to the employee ;

(c) requiring the tribunal to order the payment to the employee of only the excess of the prescribed element of the monetary award over the amount of any unemployment benefit or supplementary benefit shown to the tribunal to have been paid to the employee, and enabling the Secretary of State to recover from the employer, by way of total or partial recoupment of the benefit, a sum not exceeding that amount.

(3) Without prejudice to subsection (2) above, regulations under that subsection may—

(a) be so framed as to apply to all payments to which this section applies or one or more classes of those payments and so as to apply both to unemployment benefit and supplementary benefit or only to one of those benefits;

(b) confer powers and impose duties on industrial tribunals, on the Supplementary Benefits Commission and on insurance officers and other persons;

(c) confer on an employee who is aggrieved by any decision of the Commission as to the total or partial recoupment of supplementary benefit in pursuance of the regulations (including any decision as to the amount of benefit) a right to appeal against the decision to an Appeal Tribunal constituted under the [1966 c. 20.] Supplementary Benefit Act 1966 and for that purpose apply section 18(2) and (3) of that Act (appeals) with or without modifications;

(d) provide for the proof in proceedings before industrial tribunals (whether by certificate or in any other manner) of any amount of unemployment benefit or supplementary benefit paid to an employee ; and

(e) make different provision for different cases.

(4) It is hereby declared for the avoidance of doubt that the power to make regulations under section 114 of the [1975 c. 14.] Social Security Act 1975 for the determination of questions arising in connection with that Act includes power to make regulations for the determination of any question arising as to the total or partial recoupment of unemployment benefit in pursuance of regulations under subsection (2) above (including any decision as to the amount of benefit).

(5) Where in pursuance of any regulations under that subsection a sum has been recovered by or paid to the Secretary of State by way of total or partial recoupment of unemployment benefit or supplementary benefit—

(a) section 119(1) and (2) of the [1975 c. 14.] Social Security Act 1975 (repayment of benefit revised on review) shall not apply to the unemployment benefit recouped; and

(b) the following provisions of the [1966 c. 20.] Supplementary Benefit Act 1966, that is to say, section 23 (recovery of cost of supplementary benefit from persons liable for maintenance) and section 26 (recovery of benefit and other sums in cases of misrepresentation and non-disclosure), shall not apply to the supplementary benefit recouped.

(6) Any amount found to have been duly recovered by or paid to the Secretary of State in pursuance of regulations under subsection (2) above by way of total or partial recoupment of unemployment benefit shall be paid into the National Insurance Fund.

(7) This section applies—

(a) to a payment of wages or compensation for loss of wages;

(b) to any payment under this Act by an employer to an employee or a payment by an employer to an employee of a nature similar to, or for a purpose corresponding to the purpose of, any payment under this Act.

(8) In this section—

• " monetary award ", in relation to an industrial tribunal, means the amount which is awarded, or ordered to be paid, to the employee by the tribunal or would be so awarded or ordered apart from any provision of regulations under this section;

• " the prescribed element ", in relation to any monetary award, means so much of that award as is attributable to such matters as may be prescribed by regulations under subsection (2) above ;

• " supplementary benefit " means benefit under the Supplementary Benefit Act 1966; and

• " unemployment benefit " means unemployment benefit under the Social Security Act 1975.