NEW LEGISLATION

Southland Times, Issue 22188, 2 December 1933, Page 5

NEW LEGISLATION

UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

BILL BEFORE HOUSE OF COMMONS BENEFITS EXTENDED (British Official Wireless). Rugby, November 30. The new Unemployment Bill, the most important Government measure in the first part of the present session, was debated in the House of Commons to-day. It makes drastic amendments in previous unemployment insurance acts and establishes the solvency of the insurance fund. It 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 Heniy 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 30 years. It was significant that people in other countries, 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 able-bodied unemployed. The broad principles on which the insurance part of the Bill was based were: (1) That the scheme be financed by contributions from employers, workers, and the State. (2) That the benefits be dependent on contributions. (3) That the scheme be placed on a solvent, self-supporting basis. No change was made in the provisions whereby insured persons who had paid 30 contributions in the last two years were qualified for the minimum period of benefit for 26 weeks. That period of 26 weeks would, however, be extended to contributors with the best record. When the present Government took office excessive expenditure on ordinary insurance account was made at the rate of £60,000,000 a year. 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 a year on a live register of 2,500,00. 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 contributions, which were 260, and had drawn no benefit, then such a man would be entitled to 26 weeks in addition to the ’6 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 contribution had not been fully paid, then he would get, according to the state of his balance, something less than 26 weeks. There would be 167.000 more persons entitled to benefit and fewer persons would be subjected to the means test. The Bill rut only put the insurance scheme on a sound financial basis for the immediate future, but it also established machinery to enable it to be kept solvent. The second part of the Bill was based on three main principles, said the Minister. Firstly, that assistance be proportionate to the needs; secondly, that the worker who had been long unem- , ployed might receive assistance other than and in addition to cash payments; and thirdly, that the State should accept general responsibility for its industrial, able-bodied outside insurance. Mr Arthur Greenwood, on behalf of the Labour Party, moved the rejection of the Insurance Bill on the grounds that it failed to provide for maintenance from national funds for all victims of unemployment.