UNEMPLOYED INSURANCE

Taranaki Daily News, 23 November 1929, Page 11

UNEMPLOYED INSURANCE

BILL IN HOUSE OF COMMONS MEASURE TO EASE CONDITIONS. ATTACK BY MR. LLOYD GEORGE. British Wireless. Rugby, Nov. 21. Miss M. Bondfield, Minister of Labour, moved in the House of Commons the second reading of the Unemployment Insurance Bill. She said the object of the measure was to remedy the outstanding defects of the present system. The most important change in the Bill was the abolition of the condition placing on a claimant for unemployment pay the onus that he was minutely seeking work, and on the submission of a new claim placing on the -Labour Exchange the onus of showing, not only that employment. of a. suitable kind for. the claimant was. available, but that ho could reasonably have been expected to know of it. Miss Bondfield contended that the old condition involved a psychological test which it. was administratively im-' possible to maintain with the least degree of equity, particularly in depressed areas. Another important proposal of the Bill was contained in the clause lowering the minimum age for insurance. The Government, had announced its intention of raising the school leaving age to 15. . That.,.,step would be taken not later than, ; 1931. The Bill proposed that- when, it was. taken the minimum age for insurance should be reduced from the present ,age of 16 to the school leaving age. . Mr. Lloyd .George strongly criticised-! the Bill. It .was, he said, difficult to j say “no” to a proposal giving 2s extra I to tile wives of unemployed, but his [ principal misgivings were ns to the I tremendous expenditure which was being run up as.. a.. result of the Bill as ’ a whole, expenditure which the country j could not pay. .The country had already, since the. general election, added I a burden of £19,000,000 to the next ] year’s Budget. . . | With regard to the extension of un- : employment pay to boys of 15, Mr. Lloyd George said they ought to be putting the whole of their efforts into seeing that young men of 17, 18 and 19 and even beyond that age, had something to do. He appealed to the Government to make an effort to find work for the younger men, instead of bring-. ing in doles to increase demoralisation. Major Elliott moved a Conservative amendment rejecting the Bill on the grounds that it was unfair. The burden, he said, was cast on the juvenile insured. He referred to the vague, unsatisfactory nature of the tests and the grave additional burden cast on the Exchequer. He said the whole Bill was based on the expectation that there would be 1,250.000 unemployed for three years, despite Mr. J. H. Thomas’ efforts to . relieve unemployment. The Government had grafted a non-epntrib-utory on to a contributory scheme with-' out facing the inevitable consequences of making a grant of £8,000,000 per annum from the Exchequer, irrespective of the State insurance fund. Mr. J. Maxton (Labour) caused several breezes during his speech, particularly from Mr. Lloyd George, whom Mr. Maxton taunted with suggesting during the election that £200,000,000 should be taken out of industry and .put into roads. Mr. Maxton said that when Mr. Snowden offered 5j per cent, people came and slapped hundreds of millions on the Treasury counter. His supporters would rather invest £200,000,000 in human beings than in roads or city of London financiers. Work was the only justification of citizenship, but as nobody was able to provide work the unemployed should not be asked to shoul- . der the burden of Britain’s economic mistakes. The debate was adjourned. ;