COSTS RISE AGAIN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 242, 12 October 1937, Page 4

COSTS RISE AGAIN

ECONOMY NOT OBSERVED UNEMPLOYMENT ADMINISTRATION The Government’s estimates of the cost of unemployment administration for the current financial year, as contained in the official statements now before Parliament, show most extraordinary increases which the Government has not so far attempted to explain (says a statement by the Associated Chambers of Commerce of New Zealand). Last year the Minister of Labour claimed that the machinery of the Unemployment Board (later abolished) was “unnecessary,” that the Department of Labour “was well-equip-ped to deal with the whole situation,” and that by amalgamating the functions of the Department of Labour and the Unemployment Department under one head and as one united body, “the work could be done much more economically and better than it had been done in the past.” He also said that the unemployment fund would in the future be collected by the Commissioner of Taxes,” who had the machinery to do the job more efficiently than it had been done by the board —a body which had really been duplicating the work of the Commissioner of Taxes.”

At the end of the financial year 1935-36 there were 864 persons employed under the Unemployment Board machinery, and the cost of administration for that year was £200,844. These are the figures which the Minister meant were to be so much improved upon, but the figures which are given hereunder for the succeeding year (1936-37) and for the current financial year, do anything but show that the Minister’s undertaking that there would oe greater economy in unemployment administration is being carried out: —

These figures, which cover both the employment promotion branch of the Department of Labour, and the emuloyment taxation branch of the Land

and Income Tax Department, show that the cost of unemployment administration in 1936-37 increased by £59,000, or 29 per cent., over 1935-36, while the cost for 1937-39, on the Government’s estimate, represents an increase of £127,600, or 63.5 per cent., over 1935-36. The number of employees has been increased by 310, or 36 per ent. The cost of administration now absorbs the equivalent of threequarters of the whole yield from the quarterly unemployment levy for last year.

The taxpayers have very good reason for asking what has happened to the Minister’s economy programme, particularly in view of the improvement claimed by the Government in the unemployment situation, and of the fact that the people have been given no taxation relief this year.

Administrative No. of Year. Costs. Employees. 1935-36 . 200,844 864 1936-37 . ... 259,946 1,047 1937-38 . 328333 1’174