RELIEF FUNDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 46, 24 February 1937, Page 7

RELIEF FUNDS.

BRITISH WORKLESS.

National Surplus Permits Concessions.

BENEFIT DATS INCREASED

British Official Wireless.

(Received 12.30 p.m.) RUGBY, February 23. The annual report of the Unemployment Insurance Statutory Committee states that the improvement in employment in 1936 and its anticipated continuance in the present year will give the une'mployment fund a disposable surplus in 1936-37 of £17,250,000, which is a much larger figure than had been expected. Concessions for disposal of this sum suggested by the committee, for the next eight years, are:—(l) Reduction, as at April 1, 1937, from six days to three of waiting time, for which no benefit is paid at the beginning of a continuous period of unemployment; and (2) increase of the number of additional days of benefit that can be drawn by men who have worked regularly during the past five years, while drawing relatively little in benefit. From November, 1935, to November, 1936, there was a fall in unemployment percentage in every industry except eight. These eight industries accounted in November, J 936, for lest than 3 per cent of the total unemployment. The Government has adopted these recommendations. Sir William Beveridge, chairman of the committee, explained that the effect of the concessions would be to reduce by 16,000 a week the number of people obtaining public assistance.