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 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.