Genealogy Chat

On my father's 1932 birth cert it states its for the unemployment act??

It was officially signed 1946 so he would of only been 14yr old.
Surely he wouldn't have claimed anything at that age.
Or was it proof of his age for his parents to claim.

Thanks guys x

Not certain but I think it would have been when your father was starting work and he had to prove his age.

Kath. x

Found by googling!

The Unemployment Act 1934 was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom, reaching statute on 28 June 1934. It reduced the age at which a person entered the National Insurance scheme to 14 and made the claiming age 16 years. It also separated benefits earned by paying National Insurance and those purely based on need

1939 the government considered raising the leaving age again to 15, but this was delayed due to the onset of World War Two. The Education Act 1944 did succeed in extending compulsory education to 15, and this took effect from 1947.

So he would have left school at 14 and needed to prove his age

I left school at 15 in 1952 !

thank you so much . xx

Although much earlier and in Scotland , my grandmother (1888) had to have a similar document in 1902 to prove she was 14 when she started work.