UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 October 1930, Page 3

UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF.

ACT NOW IN OPERATION REGISTRATION" DUE SHORTLY. \ ■' LEVY INSTALMENT IN DECEMBER. Now that the much-debated Unem-' ployment Act has become law, its provisions are a matter of personal conceri. to all male New Zealanders 20 years of age and over.. What will interest them most is that they are required, within one month of the com: mcncement of the Act, to register at a post office. In the second place, the first quarterly instalment, amounting to 7s 6d, of the unemployment levy, will be due and payable on December 1. The Act establishes an unemployment fund, into which will be paid the net proceeds of an ,unemployment levy, a subsidy from the Consolidated Fund, and any other moneys which may be appropriated by Parliament for the purposes of the fund. Authority is provided for an initial advance of £lOO, free of interest, from the Consolidated Fund, to enable the purposes of the Act to be carried out pending the receipt of the first'moneys from the levy. PERSONS LIABLE TO LEVY. From time to time as the Minister of Finance directs, there is to be paid into the Unemployment Fund from the Consolidated Fund, by way of subsidy, an amount equal to one-half of the expenditure out of the Unemployment Fund. ■ ’ , r ' . .Every male person ordinarily resident in New Zealand and of the age of 20 years and upward is liable to an annual levy of SOS' as a contribution toward the prevention and relief of unemployment. The levy is to be paid in equal quarterly instalments, the first of which will be due on December 1, 1930. Any person liable to ■ the levy who makes default for more than one month will be liable to a fine “of £5 and to a, penalty of sixpence a month for the period, during which he is in arrears. All fines will form part of the Unemployment Fund. EXEMPTIONS FROM PAYMENT. 1 Certain exemptions from the levy are made. Persons wholly exempt comprise those in receipt of war pensions in respect of total disablement, or of peiL sions under the . Pensions Act, 1926. 1 Members of the native race have the option of paying the levy and making themselves eligible for benefits under the Act. Inmates of public hospitals, charitable institutions, mental hospitals or prisons will be exempt while they are in those institu-'.ons and for at least one month thereafter. Exemption is also extended to students of university colleges and other educational institutions who are net in receipt of salary or wages. Every male resident over 20 years of age will be required to register his name with his address, occupation and other particulars at a post office, within one month of the commencement,of the Act, whether he is liable for the levy or not. In exchange’, a certificate of registration will be given. For failure to register or for supplying false information, a person is liable to a fine of £5O. To assist in the administration of the scheme,, the Act sets up an unemployment board of eight members. The chairman will be the Minister of Labour. Two members, one of whom will be deputy-chairman, will .be appointed on the recommendation of the Minister. 1 One will be appointed by employers engaged in primary industries, one by employers engaged in secondary industries, two by ■ organisations of workers, and one by the Returned Soldiers’ Association. The members of the board other than the Minister will be appointed for a term of two years.

CATALOGUE OF FUNCTIONS. f

The main functions of the Unemployment Board will be:- —(a) To make arrangements with employers for the em-, ployment of those out of - work; - (b) totake 1 such- steps as it considers necessary to promote the growth of the primary and secondary industries in New Zealand so that an increasing number of workers will be "required for the efficient carrying on of such industries; (c) to make recommendations for the payment of sustenance allowances out of the fund. v ’ . .j t ■' • Subsidiary functions of the' board include :■ —(a) The establishment of labour exchanges, or co-operation in the man-, agement of the exchanges established by the Labour Department; . (b) to take steps to ensure proper collaboration between departments of State, local authorities;'public bodies and others, in order that the employment thereby provided will ‘be distributed as evenly as possible throughout/the year; (c) to assi. v unskilled or other workers by means of grants or loans to pursue courses of vocational training or stun to provide instructrs to establish and equip classes or training camps and do other things necessary to qualify such workers to undertake suitable employment;’ "■ (d) ;To make grants or loans to any persons or authorities-to enable them to undertake or continue to carry on development or other works calculated to relic e unemployment; (e) to make inquiries into any industrial matters -with the object of employing workers; (f) to appoint local committees as thought fit, provided that no member a local committee shall receive from the Unemployment Fund any remuneration for his services. Commissions of inquiry may bo appointed to assist the board. z SUSTENANCE ALLOWANCES. Provision is made for the payment of sustenance allowances out of . the fund. No such allowance will be paid to noncontributors, or to persons, who have been continuously resident .in New Zealand for six months. Payment will only be made to contributors during their periods of unemployment, except on special recommendation of the board after consideration of the particular circumstances. Except' on the recommendation of the board in either case, no sustenance allowance will be paid until a contributor has been unemployed for at least 14 days and the allowance will not be continued' for more than 13 consecutive weeks. A person who is unemployed through refusing or failing to accept employment offered him by or through the board, or employment which the board considers suitable, is not to receive sustenance allowance.-

The rates of sustenance allowances, will be as follows:—ln' respect of 'a contributor, 21s a week; in respect of the wife of contributor, or other person who, in the opinion of. the board, is in charge of his home and family, 17s 6d a week; in respect of any child of the contributor, 4s a week. . It will be an offence to employ an unregistered person or a person whose payment of the levy is in arrears. The penalty is a fine of £2O. It is estimated that the levy upon a male population, 20 years of age and

over, of 1 450,000 will produce approximately £675,000 a year. The 50 per cent, subsidy . from the Consolidated Fund, as provided in the Act, will be £337,500, making a total of £1,012,500 per annum to be raised by taxation for the purposes of the scheme.