UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20962, 16 September 1933, Page 13

UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

WASTE OF FUNDS DENIED

MR COATES'S STATEMENT [THE PRESS Special Service.] WELLINGTON, September 15. A waste of funds by the Unemployment Board was denied by the Acting-Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, in an interview today with a representative of "The Press." Mr Coates compared the relief administration of this country with that of Great Britain and some other countries, and showed that the New Zealand system had definite advantages. "One of the most popular attacks made upon our present system of administering unemployment relief is to allege a waste of funds," said Mr Coates, "and this is supported generally by some example of lack of supervision by a local body or perhaps by a description of some work which is said to be of no economic value. The indictment in these allegations is rather against the local bodies concerned than against the Unemployment Board, but the critic usually goes a long way astray by suggesting that the work should be stopped in order to save the money for the nation." The critic, he continued, was generally overlooking the fact that the worker was unemployed and was requiring assistance from the fund to sustain him during his period of unemployment, and at least some of the money would have to be paid, whether any work was performed or not, and to the extent that any work done by unemployed labour which was of national value —or of economic value—was a decided advantage, because it meant that some of the money which was to be raised and expended for the relief of unemployment was returned to the country in the form of a created asset.

Fair Success. The policy of the Unemployment Board since its reconstitution had been to divert unemployed labour to works of national value, or reproductive works, and the annual report testified to a fair measure of success in that direction. "A fairly general attack is being made at the present time on the measure of relief the board is able to give," Mr Coates continued. "It is alleged to be inadequate, and the Government and the Unemployment Board are asked to increase the individual rates of relief. It is not uncommon for persons criticising the measure of relief granted to set out all reasonable costs in connexion with maintaining what is regarded in industry as the minimum standard of living, and then to say that these costs cannot be fully met from the amount of relief granted to the unemployed worker. It is never claimed that the measure of relief granted will of itself meet all the costs to ensure the recognised modern minimum living standard to be obtained, nor can any country be pointed out where the i amount of unemployment relief granted is sufficient to provide what in industry in the country concerned is regarded as a minimum living standard." It was something to the credit of New Zealand, however, that the measure of relief granted here compared favourably with that granted in any other country, Mr Coates continued. Comparisons were not always fair, or of very much real value, but it was not out of place, whilst closely considering the relief of unemployment system in New Zealand, to see how it compared with other countries more or less: similarly situated. j Australian Schemes. In Australia the best example was found in Queensland, where for j many years now an unemployment insurance scheme had been operating. To the insured person, who was required tjp be engaged in certain approved- industries, the weekly rate of benefit was sometimes higher than the scale that operated in New Zealand, in others it was lower; but the point to remember was that the maximum benefit payments that he might receive in any one year was 13 weeks. The abnormal depression which was now affecting Queensland similarly to New Zealand had resulted in further relief funds being provided by taxation, and these provided for additional benefits where hardship was proved to the satisfaction of the Unemployment Council. In Victoria {here was no unempl6yment insurance on the lines of the Queensland system, but a fund for the relief of unemployment was provided by special taxation, and from that fund unemployed workers received vouchers which they might exchange at shops against certain foodstuffs. The weekly rate of the vouchers was fixed as follows: Single persons (other than those living at home with parents) 5s 6d, married couple 8s 6d, married couple with one child 10s, the scale then rising to a maximum of 20s 6d for a family of not less than eight children. It might be worth mentioning that these rates were, fixed by a Labour Government.

The British Dole,

In Great Britain, which had a longer experience of unemployment relief schemes, the payment was in the form of a dole without work. The rates were not so high as those known as the city scale in New Zealand, and the maximum for one year under the insurance scheme was for 156 days (2G weeks). Ordinary benefits there, however, had been supplemented by the payment of extended benefits, applicable only to workers nominally engaged in an insurance industry. This extended benefit had led to a very serious drain on the funds, which resulted in the fund being over-expended and indebted to the Treasury to the extent of 115 million pounds. Since then, a commission had been set up to report on the financial position of the unemployment fund and to recommend reforms with a view to keeping the fund solvent. In addition to recommending an increase in the contributions and a reduction in the rates of benefit, the commission recommended—and this had been acted upon—that payments for supplementary or extended benefit should; be subject to a test of means. This extended benefit was no longer granted as a right, and the test of means appeared to be more thorough than was provided in the U.B. 32 (enquiry sheet) in New Zealand that was receiving much criticism at the present time. The New Zealand system of unemployment relief departed very considerably from the general prin-i ciples of unemployment insurance | schemes operating in some other