COSTS RISE AGAIN

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 21, 18 October 1937, Page 9

COSTS RISE AGAIN

Unemployment Administration Expenses

ECONOMY NOT OBSERVED

The Government' s estimates of the cost of unemployment administration for the current linancial year, as contained in the official statements nowbefore 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-equipped to deal with the whole situation," and that by amalgamatmg the functions of the Department of Labour and the Unemployment Department under one head and as one uuited body, "tho work could be done much more economically and better than it bad been done in the past." He also said that the Unemployment Fund would in tho 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 tbe Commissioner of Taxes." At the end of the financial year 1935-36, there were 86-1 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 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 be greater economy in unemployment administration is being carried out: — Year Administrative No. of Costs Employees 1935-36 £200,844 864 1936-37 • £259,946 1,047 1937-38 £328,433 1,174 These figures, which cover both the employment promotion branch of the Department of Labour. and the employment 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 1937-8 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 cent. The cost of administration now absorbs the equivalent of three-quarters of the whole yield from the quarterly unemployment levy for last year. The taxpayers have very good reason for asking what 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.