Unemployment

Cromwell Argus, Volume LXI, Issue 3159, 20 April 1931, Page 6

Unemployment

AMENDED RULES. The amended}- rules governing the No. 5 unemployment scheme have Veen announced. The main reatures are: l*rom Saturday, April nth, until April 25th, No. 5 scheme will be suspended owing to the position of the board's funds and to allow certifying officers to complete the re-classihca-t'on of the registered unemployed. Only those who are qualified under the new rules_ will be able to obtain relief when work is re-commenced. The new rules are as follows:

1 The adoption of the principle, "No levy—No relief." 2 Relief on the rationed basis of two. three, and four (Jays a week is now to be granted for three weeks only out of each lour consecutive weeks; that is for one week out of four no relief is granted. 3 Married men and widowers with two dependent children are now entitled to only three days' work ft week instead of four days as previously, to bring the classification tor relief into line with the generally accepted basis for the minimum wage and the Family Allowance Act. Power is provided for a searching investigation to ba. made into the circumstances and financial position of all applicants in order that only the genuinely unemployed wage-earners shall obtain benefits under the scheme. In future all labour must be engaged through the employment bureaux of the Labour Department or through permanent post offices in those centres where there is no branch of the Labour Department. Local bodies are to continue to provide work for the unemployed, but the Unemployment Board will exer'•ise a closer supervision over the exp mditure. The attention of local bodies has been directed to the necessity for insisting that work done under the scheme shall wherever possible be useful and necessary.

It is realised that certain sections of the community will experience hardship through being- debarred from obtaining- work under this scheme, but it has become necessary so to apportion relief that it shall be distributed only amongst those who have always been wage-carners and are now without any income whatever. The board has every sympathy with tfiose who do not come within this category, but its funds will not permit of an extension of its operations.

In a statement concerning the schemes Nos. 4a and 4b, development work on farms, the Minister adds that it is expected as a result of the experience gained in larm work under these schemes that many of the men now employed, who nave hitherto been engagt/d in city occupations, will prove valuable recruits to the farming industry. In any case, to the extent that the schemes have relieved the congestion of unemployed in the towns they may be regarded as valuable factors in restricting the spread of unemployment. In addition, there is every prospect of an increase in primary products in the near future. Summarised the position is that a married man or widower with two dependent children will receive nine days work in four weeks. At 12s 6d per day his total earnings for the month will amount to ,£5 12s Gd, or an average over the four weeks of £\ 8s ijd. Evidently single men will still receive two days work in throe of the four weeks, making a total, at 9s per day, of £2 14s, or an average per week for the four weeks period of 13s 6d.

In respect to the Minister's opinion on the Nos. 4 a and 4 b schemes producing- recruits for farming-, we would like to ask where he ran provide for them in this vast valley, with its huge areas of undeveloped lands, and where not a single acre is open for selection