BRITAIN’S UNEMPLOYED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 20 June 1936, Page 4

BRITAIN’S UNEMPLOYED

BOARD’S HUGE TASK REVIEW OF YEAR’S WORK (British Official Wirelesß) ■ i- ■ RUGBY. 17th June. The magnitude of the task confronting the Unemployment Assistance Board in creating a new social service for able-bodied unemployed is described in the board’s first annual report. Appointed on Ist July, 1934, the board was called on to set up within six months more than 300 district offices manned by a staff of over 6000 persons and to appoint 130 appeal tribunals. On the first appointed day, 7th January, 1935, it was required to assume the responsibility for the transitional payments class, amounting to about 800,000 applications, who, with their dependants, made a total of about 2,500,000 persons. On the-second appointed day, Ist March, 1935 a further 200,000 applicants were taken over. Lord Rushcliffe, chairman of the board, states in his introduction that no social service on such a large scale has been attempted in this country within such a limited period. Fears that the board will prove soulless and bureaucratic have, he says, proved groundless. Many examples are quoted of the way in whi\ch officers have given extra assistance in cases of special need.