DRASTIC CHANGES

Evening Star, Issue 21583, 1 December 1933, Page 9

DRASTIC CHANGES

BRITAIN’S UNEMPLOYMENT BILL INSURANCE SCHEME MADE SOLVENT HELP CONDITIONED TO NEEDS (British Official Wireless.) Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright. RUGBY, November 30. (Received December 1, at noon.) The new Unemployment Bill, the most important Government measure in the first part of the present session, wag debated in the Commons to-day. It makes drastic amendments in the previous unemployment insurance Acts, establishes the solvency of the insurance fund, provides outside unemployment insurance for assisting and promoting the welfare of able-bodied persons, and extends the period of benefit. In moving the second reading, the Minister of Labour (Sir Henry Betterton) described the 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 counries who 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 hand there should be a contributory insurance scheme covering as much of the field as possible, and, on the other hand, an outside body assuming general responsibility for the relief of ablebodied unemployed. BASIS OF INSURANCE. The broad principles on which the insurance part of the Bill were based were:— Firstly, that the scheme be financed by contributions from employers, workers, and the State. Secondly, that the benefits be dependent on the contributions; thirdly, that the scheme be placed on a solvent selfsupporting basis. No change was made in the provisions whereby insured persons who had paid thirty contributions in the last two years were qualified for a minimum period of benefit for twenty-six weeks. That period of twenty-six weeks would, however, be extended to contributors with the best record. When the present Government took office excessive expenditure on the ordinary insurance account was made at the .rate of £6o,r 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. For instance, if a man during the previous five years had paid all the contributions, which were 260, and had drawn no benefit, then such a man would be entitled to twenty-six weeks in addition to the twenty-six 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 twenty-six 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 the machinery to enable it to be kept solvent. PROPORTIONATE TO NEEDS. The second part of the Bill was based on three main principles:— Firstly, that the assistance be proportionate to needs. Secondly, that a worker who had been long unemployed might receive assistance other, than, ami in addition to. cash payments. Thirdly, that the State should accept general responsibility for its industrial able-bodied outside insurance.