RELIEF FOR B2 MEN

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 20, 24 July 1934, Page 8

RELIEF FOR B2 MEN

When the emergency unemployment charge was raised to a shilling in the pound one reason given for the increase was that the Unemployment Board would take ' over from the hospital hoards the responsibility for supplementing the allowances (with rations or otherwise) where distress was due to unemployment. Now a dispute has arisen as to' the interpretation of this undertaking as applied to B2 men and their families. B2 , men are those who are classified as unfit for ;»ny but light work under good conditions. Where local authorities cannot find sufficient light work for these men, and this presents a difficulty in the cities, the men are placed on .sustenance at rates below the allowances which they would re-

ceive on relief work. They are permitted to supplerhent'this sustenance by private work, but it is admitted that many find it impossible to do so. In the meantime they and1 their families are suffering, and the more so because the voluntary aid organisations which could deal with applications on their merits have not the means to afford relief. The Unemployment Board says that the hospital boards should give'the necessary help, and the hospital boards consider that the responsibility lies on the Unemployment Board. We do "not profess to he able lo decide this issue; but we do say emphatically that it is the business of the Government to do so. The dispute cannot he allowed to drag on while innocent and deserving families, suffer. It is not a case of applying' the maximum sustenance rales of the original Act. To suggest this is only political byplay. It appears to us to be a case where the Minister of Employment and the Minister of Health, both reasonable and humane men, should take the issue out of the hands of the disputing parties and give a decision quickly. ,