WELFARE EFFORT

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 59, 2 December 1933, Page 7

WELFARE EFFORT

Britain’s Unemployed NEW INSURANCE BILL Comprehensive Measure SOUND FINANCIAL BASIS (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, November 30. The new Unemployment Bill, the most important Government measure in the first part of the present session, was debated in the House of Commons to-day. The Bill makes drastic amendments in the previous Unemployment Insurance Acts, establishes the solvency of the Insurance Fund, provides means outside unemployment insurance for assisting and promoting the welfare of able-bodied persons, and extends the period of benefit. The clauses dealing with young persons reduce the minimum age of entry into insurance to the school-leaving age, and increases the junior instructional centres, while other clauses set up assistance boards and advisory committees to determine the persons to whom and the circumstances in which allowances may be granted from the unemployment assistance fund. Logical Development of Policy. In moving the second reading the Minister of Labour (Sir Henry Betterton) described tiie Bill as one of the most comprehensive pieces of social legislation introduced for over a generation. It represented the logical development of the policy pursued by every party in Great Britain during the last thirty years. It was significant that people in other countries who had previously derided the British system were now in their bewilderment and perplexity hastily improvising an imitation of it. The present Bill was based on the fundamental principle that, on the one band, there should be a contributory insurance scheme, covering as much of the field as possible, and, on the other band, an outside body assuming general responsibility for the relief of ablebodied unemployed. The broad principles on which the insurance part of the Bill was based were:— (1) That the scheme be financed by contributions from employers, workers, and the State; (2) That benefits be dependent on contributions; (3) That the scheme be placed on a solvent, self-supporting basis. No change was made in the provisions whereby insured persons who "had paid 30 contributions in the last two years were qualified for the minimum period of benefit for 26 weeks. That period of 26 weeks would, how'evgr. be extended to contributors with the best record. Income Exceeds Expenditure. When the present Government took office excessive expenditure on ordinary insurance account was made at the rate of £60,000,000 yearly. At present, following the recent improvement in employment, the rate of increased income would now exceed the rate of expenditure by about £8,500,000 yearly on a live register of 2,500,000. He proposed to use this balance by extending the period of benefit to persons with the best industrial record. 11 For” instance, If a man during the previous five years had paid all his contributions, which were 260, and had drawn no benefit, then such a man would be entitled to 26 weeks, in addition to the 26 weeks which he now got as a minimum. Per contra, where the record was not so good, where a man had some benefit and his contributions had not been fully paid, then he would get according to the state of his balance something less than 26 weeks. There would be 167,000 more persons entitled to benefit, and fewer persons would be subjected to the means test.

The Bill not only put the insurance scheme on a sound financial basis for the immediate future, but it also established machinery to enable it to be kept solvent.

The second part of the Bill, said tiie Minister, was based on three main principles'— (1) That assistance be proportionate to needs. (2) That the worker who had been long unemployed might receive assistance other than and In addition to cash payments. , (3) That the State should accept a genera) responsibility for its industrial able-bodied citizens outsidq the insurance scheme. REJECTION MOVED (Received December 1, 7 p.m.) London, November 30.

The Kt. Hon. A. Greenwood, on behalf of the Labour Party, moved the rejection of the Insurance Bill on the ground that it failed to provide for the maintenance from national funds of all victims of unemployment.