RELIEF GRANT.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20479, 4 December 1934, Page 12

RELIEF GRANT.

Christmas Concessions to Unemployed. MINISTER EXPLAINS. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, December 3. Full details of the concession to be granted relief workers at Christmas were announced to-day by the ActingMinister of Employment, the Hon J. A. Young, who said that two weeks’ payment without work would apply in the weeks ending December 29 and January 5. In order to receive this concession men must be registered as unemployed and actually in receipt of relief or eligible therefor during the week ending December 8. The concessions would apply to the following class of workers: Scheme 5 men employed on a rationed basis, including bureau workers and inquiry officers, receiving the ordinary ration of relief for which they are eligible. Camp workers under control of State departments or local bodies, where the cost of food and/or wages is met wholly from unemployment funds. Workers under the relief camp scheme. Subsidised gold prospectors. “ Generally speaking,” said Mr Young, “ men are not eligible to receive the two weeks’ pay unless actually at work under normal conditions in the period mentioned, though if local bodies are prepared to pay the usual rates without requiring work, the Unemployment Board will isimburse local bodies to the extent of the usual contribution. Amounts payable under No. 5 scheme during the two weeks’ cessation of work would be based on the current allocation of funds to those who normally were eligible for work in that period.” A further concession being granted would take the form of a special Christmas relief cash payment of an amount equivalent to one week’s current measure of relief, and would involve an expenditure of £65,000. Generally, the concession applied to all the above-mentioned classes, also to men in receipt of sustenance without work, provided they had been in receipt of relief for periods totalling thirteen weeks in the past twelve months. Camp workers, gold prospectors and others who had been drafted away from their homes might obtain the same fare concessions to enable them to visit home as were arranged last year.