THE SUSTENANCE PLAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 12, 15 January 1934, Page 6

THE SUSTENANCE PLAN.

The main difficulty in administering the new sustenance scheme introduced by the Unemployment Board is that the rates will be lower than relief pay, and consequently the number of men who will volunteer to go from relief works to sustenance without work may be less than the Board expects. On the other hand, there must be some men, of all ages, who are working on relief although they are unfit for such work. They are trying desperately to earn money, but it would be everybody's interest if they were enabled to live on sustenance pay. This type will benefit by the new scheme provided the sustenance rates are supplemented in some way. Here is the rub. The bare sustenance rates are in every category less than the relief rates, and if it has been difficult to live on the latter it will be still more difficult to make the former suffice. The Department says that men who pull out from relief work owing to unfitness will be able to look for private work of a lighter kind. They may look, but how many will find it? The scheme is an experiment, and deserves a fair and sympathetic trial, but the possibility is plain that a large proportion of unemployed living on sustenance alone will have to apply to public and private charity for a supplement to their allowances.