The Unemployment Insurance Act 1924 was passed when the British Labour Party was in power in 1924. The Act arose from a dispute over the

means testing A means test is a determination of whether an individual or family is eligible for government assistance or welfare, based upon whether the individual or family possesses the means to do without that help. Canada In Canada, means tests are use ...

of benefits. The Labour Cabinet disagreed on whether means testing should be abolished or whether such a move would prove too costly. The compromise was that the test for receiving benefits would be whether a person was "genuinely seeking work". The 1924 Act extended to "genuinely seeking work" test to all benefited claims. {{cite web, url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinetpapers/themes/reform-great-depression.htm , title=Reform and the Great Depression , publisher=The National Archives , date= , accessdate=2012-02-04

References

Insurance legislation United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1924 1924 in economics Unemployment in the United Kingdom