UNEMPLOYED INSURANCE

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 27 March 1935, Page 8

UNEMPLOYED INSURANCE

. THE SOUTH AFRICAN, BILL. CONTRIBUTIONS AND BENEFITS. CAPETOWN, Feb. 11. i In spite of the fact that unemployment has been halved since the peak month of distress—October, 1933—the Government has decided to reintroduce the Unemployment Benefits Bill, which was carried over from last session.

The bill, which provides “for the payment of benefit to workers in certain industries in case of unemployment and matters incidental thereto,” follows in many respects the lines of the British Unemployment Insurance Act, with divergences made necessary by South African conditions. A contributor whose wages are not more than £7B a year will contribute 2d a week and his employer 6d ; a contributor earning more than £7B a year, hut not more than £l3O a, year, will contribute 6d a week and his employer 10d; and a person earning more than £l3O a year, but not more than £4OO a year, will contribute Is a week and his employer also Is. The State will add to the fund, a sum equal to one-quarter of the total | paid by employers and contributors. In the event of unemployment the contributor in group 1 will receive 10s a week in benefit. _ In group 2 the benefit will be 20s a' week and in group 3 30s a week. But the contributor must liavo made 26 contributions within the preceding two years, and he will receive benefit at the rate of not more than one week’s benefit for every six weeks’ contributions paid. The bill will go to a select committee before the second reading, and may emerge in a totally different form.