UNEMPLOYMENT FINANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 287, 4 December 1930, Page 6

UNEMPLOYMENT FINANCE.

The appointment of a Royal Commission to inquire into the "working of Unemployment Insurance at Home is not unexpected, for it was announced in the King's Speech six weeks ago. But as the debate on the Address-in-Reply proved, the proposal is open to serious objections. A Royal Commission will require a long time to take evidence and frame a report, and in" the meanwhile the Government is committing the country to the continued maintenance of a system which is in many ways open to grave criticism. Moreover, the figures, revealing the financial position of the Unemployed Insurance Fund, are in themselves sufficiently disquieting. As the Minister of Labour told the House on Tuesday, the fund's debt is £56,000,000, and it is increasing at the rate of £40,000,000. a year. Financially, the so-called "dole" in its present form needs a great deal of justification. But the financial aspect of the is I less important than the effects it is producing 'on the social and industrial habits of the 1 nation. At the present time, between 300,000 'and 400,000 people are drawing "outdoor relief" at benefit rates, and "will continue to do so, provided that they are able, to show that they have worked in insurable employment for eight out of the preceding 104 weeks, or for 30 weeks at any time. As the "Times" puts it: "No person has to look for work and no person of any ingenuity need stay in a job for any time if lie does not like it. : Indeed, "the Act furnishes even more excuses , for dropping, a job than for not finding one." The "Times" cites the case of a young man who never paid more than one contribution a year to the insurance fund, and that was in respect of annual attendance at camp 5 yet he lived and married on the dole. While the cost of living during the past nine years has fallen over 20 per cent, the rate of unemployment benefit has risen by 13 per cent for a single man and 33 per cent for the head of a family. A married man with three children can draw 32/ a week if he does not work, and 35/ a week if he does; why should he work for the ex'fia 3/ ? Thus, "the temptation to moral deto"oration offered by the dole is increased by the -physical deterioration induced by the absence of regular work." The principle of unemployment relief on a contributory basis is undoubtedly sound and praiseworthy, but the abuses that have crept into the system at.Home undoubtedly justify an imperative demand, for a complete overhaul. 1