UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 59, 2 December 1933, Page 6

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE

The new British Unemployment Bill, details of which are published .to-day, follows closely the lines anticipated. It is a sound measure, for it is based on the experience of the working pf previous legislation. Out of that experience the salient essentials which have emerged are that the unemployment insurance scheme must be selfsupporting, that assistance must be proportionate to needs, and that the State must accept responsibility for industrial able-bodied citizens outside the insurance scheme, and for the care of juvenile unemployed. As the result of increased employment the strain on the insurance fund will be so greatly relaxed that the new scheme will be launched on such a basis that income will exceed expenditure by £B-1- millions. It would 1- appear therefore that solvency is already assured. The most satisfactory feature of the new Bill is the check provided against exploitation. It is more than a means test, for there is also a direct encouragenient to workers to seek employment and stay in employment rather than loaf on the fund. A worker who has remained in employment over a period and has paid up his contributions will be entitled to extra benefits when unemployed. Conversely, those who have drawn benefits but have not fully paid up their contributions will be treated accordingly. An unavoidable aspect of any insurance scheme based on contributions from trade unionists, employers, and the State is that it necessarily excludes from participation a large number of workers who are not organised, yet who are subject to the same risks of unemployment and should therefore be entitled to claim consideration. The Bill provides for that. This provision should not impose any extra strain on a solvent fund with solid interest-earning reserves. The Minister of Labour rightly describes the Bill as one of the most comprehensive pieces of social legislation for over a generation. That in itself would be no recommendation were it not based upon sound principles of solvency.' Under the previous Government unemployment relief almost threatened to bankrupt the nation. The future has now been made secure, both for the workers and for the State.