Emergency help for 60

Press, 19 December 1981, Page 6

Emergency help for 60

Sixty temporary workers, or about half those thought to be eligible, had applied to the Social Welfare Department in Christchurch for an emergency benefit to tide them over the Christmas holidays, said the department’s Christchurch director, Mr C. L. Waters, yesterday.

Mr Waters said that there were no delays in paying out the benefits to those eligible. The temporary workers

are eligible if they do not qualify for holiday pay and are forced to take a holiday because their temporary project is suspended. Mr Waters said that the emergency benefit was the standard unemployment benefit — $70.75 for single people over 20 ($60.66 net); $53.83 for single people under 20 ($46.17 net), and $117.92 for a married couple ($101,732 net).

The district superintendent of the Labour Department, Mr W. T. Holland, said yesterday that although most students received a flat rate of pay on student work schemes, some were paid according to awards or agreements. If students were stood down over the holiday period without holiday pay, they would be eligible for an emergency benefit.