STATE INSURANCE SCHEME.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 11111, 8 May 1911, Page 5

STATE INSURANCE SCHEME.

AID FOR THE UNEMPLOYED,

BENEFITS FOR ENGINEERING AND BUILDING TRADES ONLY. NO EXTRA TAXATION NEEDED. Ey Telegraph—Prqss Association-Oopyricht London, May 5. Under thrs National Invalidity and Unemployment Insurance Bill, introduced by Mr. Lloyd-George yesterday, tho sickness funds will be collected by means of cards—to which employers and workmen are to aflis stamps—which the workmen shall send to various approved benefit societies having local committees, such as Foresters and Oddfellows. Workmen not members of benefit societies shall be collected into a body to be called "Post Offico contributors." The unemployment proposals deal only with tho engineering and building trades, numbering 2,400,000 persons.

Employers and workmen are to pay twopence halfpenny each weekly, the State bearing a fourth of the total cost. Special abatements will bo made in tho case of employers paying thoir men by the year.

. Unemployed engineers are to receive a weekly payment (amount not cabled) for fifteen woeks, and men in the building trades six shillings to seven shillings. They will get nothing when they have been dismissed for misconduct, or because of strikes or lock-outs.

The men's contributions will amount to £1, 100,000, and those o£ the employers to .£930,000. Tho cost to the State at the beginning will be .£750,000.

Unemployment claims are to be made through labour exchanges, whick will offer work.

A court of referees will decide whether a person applying must tako .% job.

Trades unions insuring men against unemployment will ti alloiml to pusbenefits and receive tho amount tho State oilers.

Tho two schemes will not involve nddittonal taxation, but there will be no tomTssioii of taxation.

Mr. Austen Chamberlain, ex-Chancel-lor of the Exchequer, promised the scheme his goodwill and assistance, and reserved his criticism of the measure. DELUGE OF CONGRATULATIONS.. SIR JOSEPH WARD'S TRIBUTE. (Rec. May 7, 5.5 p.m.) London, May G. Mr. Lloyd-George, in an interview, states that ho has been deluged with telegrams of congratulation on the National Insurance Bill. The younger Tories have been particularly favourable. Sir Joseph Ward lias written expressing his profound admiration for the scheme. In commenting on this, Mr. LloydGeorge added that it was no small tributo for the scheme to receive the approbation of a Dominion which had taken so heroic a lead in this form of social legislation. RAILWAY COMPANIES' HUGE BILL. WIDE SCOPE OF MEASURE. (Rec. May 7, 5.5 p.m.) London, May C. Tho Great Western and London and North-Western Railway Companies, which employ 200,000 workers, will have (o pay (£130,000 a year under tho sickness insurance provisions. Typists, bank clerks, and domestic servants are included in tho scheme, and tho mothers of illegitimate children will receive a maternity allowance. BOLD AND FEARLESS SCHEME. 'A PROVISION CRITICISED, London, May 5. There has been some strong criticism of the provision in tho Insurance Bill that any deficiency duo to workmen's smaller contributions when they aro earning less than 15s. weekly shall bo made up by tho employer. The "Pall Mall Gazette" (Unionist) cordially recognises Mr. Lloyd-George's fearless initiative and bold imaginative powers. Tho general advantages of the scheme are, says the paper, indisputable. Tho Bill must pinch somewhere; there is no effective difference between taxing the food of the peoplo and taxing wages by deducting eleven millions a year.