A CRITICAL POSITION

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 77, 1 April 1931, Page 10

A CRITICAL POSITION

The very serious position of unemployment finance disclosed by the Minister of Labour must cause concern lo all who are anxious to see this problem handled constructively. The board has approximately £37,000 in hand, and this amount will earn a Government subsidy of £37,000. But last week nearly £60,----000 was disbursed under the No. 5 relief scheme. Therefore, the board, with the subsidy, has funds for a little more than a week, and without the subsidy cannot carry on for a week. The anticipated revenue when the Act was passed allowed for an average weekly expenditure of £24,000; but this is being over-spent by £36,000, and this not at the worst time of the year. The Minister states that persons not entitled lo benefits are receiving them, and the suspension of No. 5 scheme for a fortnight will permit a review and reclassification. Even so, it is improbable that the outgoings will be so reduced as to be met by income. Something more is needed. The difficulty is that the board's operations so far, while they have alleviated distress, have not in any substantial measure attacked the root cause of unemployment. We do not blame the board at all. It has grappled energetically with a task presenting greater difficulties than were anticipated, but its efforts have not resulted in actual progress. It seems clear to us that this actual progress cannot be made unless the co-opera-tion of the whole community is assured in a united attack on the problem. The legislation which. Parliament is now considering will be helpful by improving the economic position and the Government's land settlement will also help. But a progressive improvement cannot be started and maintained :if passive resisters and active obstructionists have to be dragged along. The obstructionists are to be found in various quarters. They include those who object to this or that form of relief work and harass the board, those who seek to take a mean advantage of relief work for selfish profit, and those whose viewpoint is so peculiar that they discover "conscientious objections" to the payment of the unemployment levy. From the figures presented by the Minister of Labour it would appear that many thousands are neglectful or wilfully evasive of their obligation to pay the levy. We hope that the board will deal with such persons firmly. This is not a voluntary payment, to be paid or withheld at the caprice of the individual. It is imposed by law, and the law can be enforced. It is necessary that this should be done, and every means used of strengthening the finances. We do not wish to drift here into the position which has arisen in England, where the Goveminent has had to come again and again to the aid of the Unemployment Insurance Fund, each time adding to the weight of the millstone on the neck of industry.