Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

already resident here, whether temporarily or permanently, are primarily for consideration by the Home Office. In cases where such aliens desire to enter employment or to change their occupation, the Home Office usually consults the Ministry of Labour and, when advising the Home Office as to the desirability of permitting the aliens to take employment offered to them, the Minister takes into consideration the same principles as apply when an application is made for a permit in respect of an alien to come from abroad.

MISCELLANEOUS DUTIES IN CONNECTION WITH THE RELIEF OF UNEMPLOYMENT.

Relief Schemes-Grants to Local Bodies.

In the Report for 1925 reference was made to the circular letter issued by the Unemployment Grants Committee to Local Authorities on 15th December, 1925. In accordance with that letter grants have been restricted to areas in which unemployment can be regarded as exceptional, and in respect of schemes where it could be shown that the work was accelerated by five years.

The effect of the new conditions is is shown shown in the fifth (interim) report of the Unemployment Grants Committee.

The Ministry of Transport has also continued to make grants towards the cost of schemes of road construction and improvement, expedited for the relief of unemployment, but in view of the large amount of work which remained outstanding from earlier programmes, no special programme was initiated during the year 1925-6. As from 1st April, 1926, the Unemployment Grants Committee ceased to make grants towards the cost of road and bridge works, and from that date the outstanding liabilities incurred by the Committee. on such works were assumed by the Road Fund.

Unemployment (Relief Works) Act, 1920.

The Unemployment (Relief Works) Act, 1920, was extended for a further period to 31st December, 1926. During the year 1926, the number of applications received from Local Authorities under this Act, to enable them to take compulsory possession of lands required in connection with approved works for the relief of unemployment, was somewhat less than in previous years. The number of certificates issued under Section 1 of the Act was 16 and under Section 2 of the Act was 24. Certificates were refused in ten cases, owing to the fact that the volume of unemployment at the time of application was not such as in the opinion of the Department would justify the issue of a certificate.

General.

The numbers of men employed on State-assisted schemes for the relief of unemployment in Great Britain at 24th December, 1926, and on the corresponding date in 1925 are given below:

[blocks in formation]

These figures do not take into account the employment provided indirectly, e.g., in the preparation and transport of material, &c.

CHAPTER III.

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE.

INTRODUCTORY.

The year 1926 was one of great strain upon the administration, and more particularly upon the finances, of the Unemployment Insurance scheme. The number of persons registered at Employment Exchanges in Great Britain on 4th January was 1,251,706. This number fell steadily week by week (with the exception of the weeks ending 5th April and 12th April, when there was a slight rise) up to the week ending 26th April, when the number was 981,877. On 1st May the dispute in the coal-mining industry commenced, while the general strike commenced on 4th May and lasted to 12th May. By 3rd May the figure had already risen to 1,105,916, exclusive of persons who ceased work on account of the general strike and the coal dispute. It continued to rise up to the first week in July, when it was 1,645,070. Thereafter it dropped slightly, but at the end of the third week in November the figure was still well over 1,500,000, and even at the end of the year it was 1,351,000.

Such a great inflation of unemployment threw a very severe strain upon the Unemployment Insurance scheme. The scheme was the less able to bear the shock because it had suffered just before a serious loss of annual revenue. By the Unemployment Insurance Act of 1925 its revenue (from 4th January, 1926) was reduced by £6,800,000 per annum in respect of employers' and workers' contributions. The Act also provided for partial

61373

B

compensation in the form of an increased contribution from the Exchequer as from 5th April, 1926, which was to be £2,200,000 or £3,900,000, according to the needs of the Unemployment Fund, subject to a reduction of £1,800,000 from January, 1928. By the Economy Act of 1926, however, the Fund not only lost the proposed increase of the Exchequer contribution but also (as from 5th April, 1926) a further £1,700,000 per annum of the former Exchequer contribution, making a total reduction of £8,500,000 a year in the contribution income.

The combined effect of the increase in the numbers unemployed and the reduction of the income of the Unemployment Fund is, of course, reflected in the figures relating to the debt of the Fund. At 31st December, 1925, the debt to the Treasury was £7,262,569; at 30th April, 1926, it was £7,137,569, and at 31st December, 1926, the debt had risen to £22,640,000.

Three Acts affecting Unemployment Insurance were passed during the year. Part II of the Economy (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1926, amended the existing provisions with regard to the Exchequer contribution under the Unemployment Insurance Acts, while the Unemployment Insurance Act, 1926, extended to 31st December, 1927, the existing provisions relating to the rights of insured contributors to receive benefit, the Minister's power of waiving the first statutory condition for benefit, and the relaxation of the conditions relating to arrangements under Section 17 of the Act of 1920, respectively. The Unemployment Insurance (Northern Ireland Agreement) Act, 1926, gave effect to an agreement between the Treasury and the Ministry of Finance for Northern Ireland with a view to assimilating the burdens on the Exchequers of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland with respect to unemployment insurance.

The Committee set up by the Minister under the chairmanship of the Right Hon. Lord Blanesburgh, G.B.E., to review the whole system of Unemployment Insurance (see Report for 1925, p. 54) sat from time to time throughout the year and held its last meeting on 17th December. Its report was presented to the Minister on 31st January, 1927, and published on 11th February, 1927.* It may be anticipated, therefore, that the next step in the direction of reviewing the whole system of Unemployment Insurance and placing it upon a permanent basis will be taken in the near future.

Rates of Contributions.

CONTRIBUTIONS.

In the Report for the year 1925 attention was called to the alterations in the rates of contributions for employers and employees which came into force on 4th January, 1926, concurrently with an alteration in the rates of contributions for Health and Pensions Insurance.

* Published by H.M. Stationery Office, Price 18.

As from 5th April, 1926, the contribution from the Exchequer was, under the Act of 1925, to be 8d. in respect of men, with lower rates for women and juveniles. If in any

quarter of the year the average of the weekly debt of the Fund to the Treasury exceeded the amount due at 31st December, 1925, the Exchequer contribution for men was to be increased by 1d. for men and by d. for women and juveniles. By the Economy (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1926, however, the Exchequer contributions were reduced as from 5th April, 1926, so that the rates for employers, employees and the Exchequer as from that date were as set out below and have remained unchanged throughout the remainder of the year

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][subsumed][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

The contributions payable in respect of exempt persons are those shown in the column headed" From Employer" in the table above, and are payable by the employer only.

Amounts of Contributions to the Unemployment Fund from Employers, Employees and the State, since 2nd July, 1923.

[blocks in formation]

Method of collecting Contributions.

No alteration has been made in the method of stamping books or in the general arrangements under which an employer may stamp unemployment books at extended intervals or in the week after payment of wages; but to meet difficulties in special cases arising out of short-time working, the general arrangements have, in a few instances, been modified.

Number of Firms having arrangements in December, 1926, for stamping at intervals, and the number of Employees concerned

[blocks in formation]

Number of Firms having arrangements in December, 1926, for stamping in the week after payment of wages, and the number of Employees concerned.

[blocks in formation]

Books

at

Arrangements under Section 31 of the Unemployment Insurance
Act, 1920, for stamping Unemployment
Exchanges.

No arrangement under this Section with a private employer is in operation, but the special arrangements with certain classes of employers at Liverpool and in South Wales, which are based on this Section, have been continued.

The following table shows the number of firms and the number of employees covered by these arrangements in December, 1926:

[blocks in formation]

The arrangements between the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Health in England, the Scottish Board of Health and the Welsh Board of Health for the survey of employers and the investigation of cases of apparent non-compliance continued during 1926.

« ZurückWeiter »