PAYMENT OF TAX.

Thames Star, Volume LXV, Issue 18236, 9 July 1931, Page 2

PAYMENT OF TAX.

While there may be sympathy with the view that relief workers should not out of their slender earnings be required to pay the unemployment levy and wages tax, there is also a principle at stake. What has tended more than anything else to break down the contributory system of unemployment insurance in Britain and to justify the use of the term "dole" has been the admission to benefits of non-contributors or those who are behindhand with their dues. That weakening of the financial foundation of the scheme was not allowed to happen for several years after it was established. In New Zealand already, only a few months after the introduction of a contributory scheme, there are proposals to admit uncovenanted beneficiaries. It is bad enough that under our revenue system those who pay most are least likely to draw relief, but' it would be wo[rse if those who obtain most benefit are allowed to pay nothing at all. Parliament will do well not to Aveaken on this point but to insist on maintaining the contributory principle.