The rates of joint contributions by employers and employed per- sons were fixed at 8d. for men ; 6Jd. for women ; 4d. for boys between 16 and 18 years of age; 3|d. for girls between 16 and 18 years of age. Out of these amounts the employed person's contribution is 4d. for men ; 3d. for women ; 2d. for boys between 16 and 18 years of age and ifd. for girls between 16 and 18 years of age. To the unemployment fund formed by these contributions the State contributes 2d. for each man's contribution; ifd. for each woman's contribution; i^d. for each boy's contribution, and id. for each girl's contribution. The weekly rate of unemployment benefit was fixed at 153. for men, I2s. for women, 7/6 for boys and 6s. for girls. Payment of benefit is limited to 15 weeks' benefit in any period of 12 months ending early in July each year, and to the payment of one week's benefit in respect of every 6 weekly contributions paid. In general the conditions for receiving benefit and the rules governing disqualification for receiv- ing benefit follow the lines of Part II. of the National Insurance Act, 1911. The Act of 1920 requires, however, that the applicant shall have not less than 12 contributions standing to his credit, and requires him to show that he has attended an approved course of instruction if he has been called upon to do so. By a special tempo- rary provision the Act allows all insured persons who have paid 4 contributions to draw up to a maximum of 8 weeks' benefit during the first 12 months. This temporary arrangement was modified by the Unemployment Insurance (Temporary Provisions Amendments) Act of Dec. 1920 which permitted any person to draw up to a maxi- mum of 8 weeks' benefit during the first year of the operation of the Act upon proving that he had been employed during 10 weeks in the course of the year 1920, or during 4 weeks since July 4 1920 in any employment which is within the scope of unemployment insurance. Arrangements for deciding disputes follow the scheme of 1911.
Special Schemes. Provision is made in the Act for the manage- ment by separate industries of the unemployment insurance of workpeople employed therein. Section 1 8 of the Act enables the Minister of Labour to approve a " Special Scheme " submitted to him by employers and employees in any industry to which com- pulsory unemployment insurance applies. The main conditions governing the formation of special schemes are that : (l) The scheme must cover all persons employed in the industry either throughout the country or over some defined area. (2) The benefits, which may include payment for short time as well as unemployment benefit, must be, on the whole, not less favourable than those provided under the general scheme. (3) The State contribution to a special scheme will be limited to an amount not exceeding 3 /ioof the contribution the State would have made if the members had remained under the general scheme. (4) The scheme will be administered not by the Ministry of Labour, but by a joint body of employers and employed in the industry specially set up for this purpose.
The Act contemplated the formation of such special schemes before July 1921, and provided for the payment to the responsible body of contributions collected from members of the industry before the scheme is launched. The provisions as to special schemes went far to meet a body of opinion that industries should bear the burden of their own unemployment. When the Act was passed, the Government actually contemplated the formation of special schemes in respect of rather less than 4 million out of a total of some I2j million insured workpeople. The event seemed likely to prove that this was a generous estimate.
Provision was also made (Section 20) for the creation" of supple- mentary schemes of unemployment insurance by any industry which did not form a special scheme. Such supplementary schemes might, out of special contributions, provide additional benefits including provision for short time or for unemployment not covered by the general scheme. When approved by the Minister of Labour, supple- mentary schemes have statutory effect.
The Act of 1920 (Section 17) reproduces Section 105 of the Act of 191 1, which enables associations of insured workpeople to undertake the payment to their members of unemployment benefit due from the State fund. Of the various provisions made in the Act of 191 1 for the refund or reduction of contributions in certain circumstances, the provision for the refund to workmen at the age of 60 of the amount of the value of their contributions over the amount of benefit re- ceived is alone reproduced (Section 25). The Minister of Labour is enabled (Section 31) to arrange for keeping and stamping at an employment exchange the insurance contribution cards and books of workpeople engaged through the exchanges.
Statistics of Insurance. Table II. shows the extent to which unem- ployment benefit was drawn in the industries covered by the un- employment insurance scheme since Jan. 1913, when unemployment benefit was first payable. During the operation of the out-of-work donation scheme for civilians (Nov. 25 1918 to Nov. 24 1919) unemployed workpeople as a rule availed themselves of their rights under that scheme, and were debarred from drawing unemployment benefit concurrently.
War Work of the Exchanges. With the outbreak of the World War, the character of the work done at the employment ex- changes was necessarily altered to meet the exceptional condi- tions, and it continued to change with the development of events until the restoration of more or less normal conditions at the end of 1919. Immediately upon the declaration of war, the exchanges were called upon to assist the war departments in mobilization by the supply of large numbers of skilled and unskilled civilian workmen. Up to Aug. 14 1914, nearly 30,000 workmen were supplied through the exchanges for this purpose. In the earlier months of the war, unemployment upon a large scale was anticipated and was experienced in certain industries, particularly in the textile industries. To meet this situation, the exchanges cooperated in the collection of information as to the extent and character of unemployment with the local representative committees which were formed by local author- ities at the suggestion of the Government. The exchanges also assisted in the distribution of special grants in aid of unemploy- ment benefit paid by trade unions, upon the lines of Section 106 of the National Insurance Act, 1911. From Aug. 1914 to March 1915, the amount of such special grants was 74,926. Unemploy- ment decreased rapidly with the progress of recruiting and the development of war industries, and from early in 1915 to the end of the war, the employment exchanges were engaged upon a series of schemes to use the man-power of the nation to the best advantage.
Enrolment Schemes. In order to obtain a body of mobile skilled labour for munitions work, and in order also to make it possible to j put pressure upon employers to make full use of the skilled workmen I in their establishments, several enrolment schemes were set on foot i whereby selected workmen undertook, in return for guaranteed j minimum pay and a subsistence allowance, to work at any place at I which they might be required (see LABOUR SUPPLY AND PVEGULA- TION). Thus enrolment of volunteers was begun in 1916.
Priority of Labour. From 1916 to the end of the war, a system of controlling the available supplies of labour for civilian war work of all kinds was developed apart from the enrolment schemes. As early | as April 1915, certain classes of the employers, mainly those engaged I
TABLE II. Unemployment Benefit. Number of unemployment books remaining lodged at the end of the month.
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1913
1914
1915
1916
1917
1918
1919
1920
January
"5.152
121,267
54.723
19,155
20.273
32,063
Out-of-work do-
127,476
February
103,332
97,636
43,257
16,021
21,221
32,445
nation in opera-
97,932
March
82,822
81,667
30,085
14,415
2I,07O
36,873
tion ; unemploy-
82,843
April .
68,151
74-546
24,517
13.095
21,973
36,412
ment insurance
67,255
May .
66,910
73,589
19,009
11,264
23,556
33,079
returns suspend-
66,897
June .
69,175
80,461
18,607
11,100
25,305
30,080
ed.
67,410
l uly ;
63.832
83-412
20,730
11,264
25,213
26,442
77,901
August
63,866
145,1940
18,997
11,290
25,006
26,024
82,406
September .
73-124
128,038
17,766
10,589
25,682
26,208
103,075
October
75,996
99,282
16,654
13,044
27,487
24,505
120,114*
November December .
88,493 101.712
81,341
68,815
17.724 22,275
15,944
17,612 b
28,799
28,382
33,634 c
102,684 (i 123,344
189,916
324,6747
a Outbreak of war.
b Unemployment insurance extended to cover 3^ million workpeople (in place of 2\ million).
c Armistice Nov. n.
d Out-of-work donation for civilians ceased Nov. 25.
e Coal-miners' strike Oct. 15.
/ Unemployment insurance extended to cover total of about 12 million workpeople.
