IDLE PAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 276, 22 November 1927, Page 7

IDLE PAY.

BRITISH PROPOSAL.

Unemployment Insurance Bill. BENEFITS GRADUATED. (British Official Wireless.) (Received 12.30 p.m.) RUGBY, November 21. The Unemployment Insurance Bill, based on the recommendations of the committee under Lord Blanesborough, which recently investigated the whole subject, with particular reference to the finance of the seheme now embracing some 12,000,000 work people, will be considered in the House of Commons.

To-day, to-morrow and Wednesday have been set aside for discussing the measure. An amendment has now been advanced by the Government whereby further alterations to the benefits are put forward. Under the existing scheme there is a dividing line at the age of eighteen between adults and boys and girls unemployed. A man receives 18/ weekly and an adult woman 15/, while a boy between sixteen and eighteen gets 7/6, and a girl between sixteen and eighteen years 6/.

Under the present bill it is proposed that a man shall receive 17/ and a woman 15/, a young man from eighteen to 21 years 10/, a young woman from eighteen to 21 years 8/, a boy from sixteen to eighteen years 6/, and a girl from sixteen to eighteen years 5/.

The Government amendment is a concession that the benefit should be graduated to persons over eighteen and under 21, and it provides that the benefit to unemployed should advance to 10/ at eighteen, to 12/ at nineteen years, and to 14/ at 20 years. Women's benefits advance proportionately.

Apart from the point of benefits and contributions there is a probability that much interest during the debate on the bill will be centred in the unofficial Conservative amendment for providing better arrangements for vocational training of young unemployed persons.