Unemployment benefits

Press, 24 July 1976, Page 10

Unemployment benefits

Sir.—The Minister of Social Welfare’s announcement that unemployment beneficiaries may not draw a benefit greater than what their earnings would have been, is a timely warning of the complications and inequities that our. social security system is generating. Benefit levels have now risen above the base of the wage structure—simple confirmation that there are wage earners whose standard of living is lower than beneficiaries’. Furthermore “wagestop” procedures on sickness and unemployment benefits mean more complicated administration, increased opportunities for abuse, and more inefficiency in the working of the labour market. Nor should be forgotten the anomalies between the accident compensation scheme and the traditional social security system. All this has occurred within four years of the publication of the Royal Commission on Social .Welfare. There is already a need for a comprehensive review to deal with the temporary and transitional benefit structure, before it deteriorates into a total shambles.—Yours, etc., BRIAN EASTON. July 21, 1976,