EMPLOYMENT FUND

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 252, 21 July 1938, Page 13

EMPLOYMENT FUND

Revenue Estimated At £5,377,000

LEVY AND WAGES TAX Disbursements Last Year Revenue of the Employment Promotion Fund for the current financial year is estimated at £5,377,000 in the Budget presented in the House of Representatives last night by the Minister of Finance. This, said the Minister, represents an increase of £231,900 over last year’s receipts. The balance in hand at April 1 last was £1.158.890, so that the sum of £6,535,890 will be available for expenditure out of the fund during the year. Mr. Nash said the fact that modern States require to take special measures to promote employment is no new phenomenon, although it is only since the last depression that the problem has assumed such an important place in practical politics. In the depths.of the depression the number of registered unemployed rose to as high as 79,500. To-dav that number has been reduced to a total of 8300. In addition, there are approximately 8000 men who on account of their physical inability to work should not qualify for relief on account of unemployment, but until, such time as the social security legislation is passed and the necessary administrative machinery established assistance is being provided for them from the Employment Promotion Fund. A number are suffering from temporary illness and after a time will be fit for work again. The majority are not totally and permanently incapacitated, and thus do not qualify for an invalidity pension, but at the same time there is very little prospect of their reabsorption into normal industry. These men will be more satisfactorily dealt with undey the social security proposals. Absorption of Unemployed. The absorption of the unemployed into industry is essentially a slow, process, and until this can be fully achieved it is the policy of the Government to find useful work for all fit able-bodied men on public works, land development, and local body works. Liberal subsidies have been granted out of the Employment Promotion Fund to local authorities to enable additional men, over and above their normal staff, to be engaged on the construction of playing areas, drainage, sewerage and other types of work which provide desirable public anientities which, but for such assistance, would be beyond the financial capacity of the ratepayers at the present time

Past experience has shown that the payment of sustenance for lengthy periods not only destroys a man’s ability to work, but in a number of cases the desire for work has also-been lost. Byproviding worth-while work for. the unemployed their industrial ability is maintained, and the possibilities of their absorption into permanent employment is thus enhanced. Position of Fund.

The balance in the fund at the beginning of last financial year was £253,000, which, together with revenue from taxation amounting to £5,105,000, interest and other miscellaneous receipts of £40,000, provided the sum of £5,398,000 for the promotion of employment during the year. Of the taxation revenue of £5,105,000 the sum of £448,850 was received from the registration levy, £3,027,480 from wages tax, and £.1,628,670 from the special charge on other income.

In last year’s Budget it was estimated that the total revenue would amount to £5,180,000. The actual revenue was £5,145,000, which is £35,000 less than the estimate, and represents a variation of less than 1 per cent, of the total collections. Compared with the previous year, the revenue from taxation shows an increase of £BBO,OOO, equivalent to 20.83 per cent. The increase in the revenue from wages tax was £436,650, or 16.85 per cent., and represents an increase during the year ended March 31, 1938, in the amount of salaries and wages paid to persons liable for the tax of no less than £13,100,000. Increase in Revenue.

The increase in the revenue from the special charge on “other income” is £435,100 in excess of the receipts for the year ended March 31, 1937. In the latter year, however, credit notes to the extent of £36,866 (issued in the previous year to persons who had paid the whole year’s fax at the rate of lOd. in the £1) were used toward payment of tax, and if this sum is added to the actual collections for the financial year 1936-37, the true increase in the revenue from the special charge on “other income" will be £398,267, equivalent to an increase of 32.36 per cent. This sum represents an increase during the year ended March 31,1937, in the incomes of persons liable for tills charge of £12,000,000. Disbursements from the fund for last year totalled £4,239,456, made up as follows; — £ Wages and other payments under various schemes .. 2.519,523 Food, clothing, and other necessities 7,564 Sustenance payments .... 1,349,162 Sundry loans and grants .. 72,919 Christmas bonus and other miscellaneous payments . 55,288 Administration expenses .. 235,000 4,239,456 The increased resources available has enabled the Government to oiler work to practically all physically fit men who were unemployed. The results that have been achieved in this direction are most satisfactory, and before long all the fit men registered should l>e in full-time work.