NEW UNEMPLOYMENT BILL

Stratford Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 424, 2 December 1933, Page 6

NEW UNEMPLOYMENT BILL

IMPORTANT GOVERNMENT MEASURE

Debate in House of Commons British Wireless. Rugby, Nov. 30. The new Unemployment Bill, the most important Government measure in the first part of the present se; ' n, was debated in the House of Commons to-day. It makes drastic amendments to the previous Unemployment Insurance Acts, establishes the solvency of the insurance fund, provides outside employment insurance for assisting and promoting the welfare of able-bodied persons and extends the period of the 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 a logical development of the policy pursued by every party in Great Britain during the last 30 years.

It was significant, he said, that the people of other countries who previously derided the British system were now in their bewilderment and perplexity hastily improvising an imitation of it. The present Bill is based on the fundamental principle that on 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.

The broad principles on which the insurance part of the Bill are based are:— (1) That the scheme be financed by .contributions from employers, workers and the Statet

(2) That the benefits be dependent on; the 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 j 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, said Sir Henry, excessive expenditure on the 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 2,500,000. He proposed to use this balance by extending the period of the benefit to persons with the best industrial record. For instance, if a man during the previous five years had paid all his contributions, which were 260, and had drawn no benefit then such a man would be entitled to 26 weeks in addition to the 26 weeks which he now received 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 26 weeks. There would be 167,000 more persons entitled to benefit, and fewer persons would be subjected to the rrteans test. The Bill would not 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:— (1) That the assistance be proportionate to the needs. (2) That 'the worker who had been long unemployed might receive assistance other than and in addition to cash payments.

(3) That the State should accept the general responsibility for the industrial able-bodied outside the insurance.