ASSISTANCE FOR UNEMPLOYED

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21813, 19 June 1936, Page 11

ASSISTANCE FOR UNEMPLOYED

BRITISH BOARD’S WORK REVIEWED STEADY CREATION OF NEW SOCIAL SERVICE CBSITISH OnrXCIAL WIBRLEB3.) (Received June 18, 7.45 p.m.) RUGBY, June 17. The magnitude of the task confronting the Unemployment Assistance Board in creating a new social service for able-bodied unemployed is described in the board’s first annual report. Appointed on July 1, 1934, the board was called on to set up within six months more than 300 district offices manned by a staff of more than 6000 persons and to appoint 130 appeal tribunals. On the first appointed day, January 7, 1935, it was required to assume responsibility for transitional payments to a class amounting to about 800,000 applicants, who with their dependents made a total of about 2,500,000 persons. On the second appointed day, March 1, 1935, a further 200,000 applicants were taken over. Lord Ruschcliffe, char man of the board, states in the introduct on to the report, no social service on such a large scale has been attempted in this country within such a limited period. Fears that the board would prove soulless and bureaucratic have, he says, proved groundless. Many examples are quoted of the way in which officers have given extra assistance in cases of special need.