UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 May 1938, Page 7

UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

BRITAIN'S SCHEME REVIEWED. [BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS] RUGBY. May 17. Votes for the Ministry of Labour and the Unemployment Assistance Board were discussed in Committee-of-Supply in the Commons. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour, reviewing various aspects'of the Ministry’s and Board’s work, stated that 2,500,000 men and women were placed in employment through the Labour Exchange, last yaer. Mr. Lennox Boyd added, dealing with industrial transference, that

last year 17,500 men and 6,500 women, about 7000 families, were transferred, a high proportion being from the specially depressed areas. The Minister also referred to the extensions of the unemployment insurance scheme, stating that whereas | ten years ago the number of people j enjoying the benefits of unemployment insurance were 12,500,000, the figure to-day was 15,000,000. It was unhappily true that on April 4, the number of registered unemployed was as high; as 1.748,000, but of those 358,000 were ( temporarily laid off, and it was reasonable to assume that a large proportion were expecting an early rm sumption of work. Chief criticism from Opposition speakers was. directed to the recent order of the Unemployment. Assistance Hoard to its local officials, to discontinue the additional grants authorised ): st Autumn, to meet Winter conditions, with the rising cost of living. Mr. Boyd had previously drawn attention to the movements in the cost of living index, which, he claimed, justified the Board’s action, and added that, the Board had under consideration a now regulation, which provided for increases during the Winter months in future.