UNEMPLOYMENT ACT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4533, 20 November 1930, Page 4

UNEMPLOYMENT ACT.

PAYMENT OF LEVY.

exemptions explained. There still appears to be some misunderstanding regarding the obligations placed on adult males under the Unemployment Act. A correspondent, to the “Post,” “ Fact-seeker,” asks to be informed whether it is compulsory for a man who is unemployed to pay the first instalment of the unemployment levy. The Act is quite clear on the point. It stipulates that every, male person over the age of twenty years (with certain exemptions, which are defined) is liable to the payment of an annual levy of 30/-. The exemptions are set out as follow :

s “The following classes of persons shall be wholly exempt from payment of the unemployment levy:

“(a) Every person for the time being in receipt of a war pension under the War Pensions Act, 1915, in respect of his total disablement. ' -i

“(lb) Every person for the time being in receipt of an old-age pension under the Pensions Act, 1920. '“(fci) EveMy Native within the meaning of the Native Land Act, 2908, unless such Native is living as a European. “The fallowing classes of persons shall be exempt, from payment of the unemploynijent levy to the extent herein provided: “(a.) Every person who on the due date of any instalment of levy and for at least one month thereafter is an inmate, of (1) any public hospital under the Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Act, 1920, or any mental hospital within the meaning of the Mental Hospitals Act, 191.1; (2) any public or private charitable institution established for the relief of aged, needy, or infirm persons, or of persons requiring medical or surgical treatment, or (3) any prison, reformatory institution,, or ' Borstal institution, shall lie exempt from the payment of that instalment of the levy.

“(h) Every person who on the due date of any instalment of levy is enrolled as a student of any University iCbllegc, technical school, secondary school, or other educational institution, and who is not in receipt of salary or wages shall be exempt from the payment of that instalment of levy.” There is also a sub-clause in the Act which enables the GovernorGeneral by Otrder-in-Coun'cil, on grounds of public- policy, to exempt wholly or in part from the payment of the levy any persons or classes of persons specified in such order. lit will be seen that there is no specified exemption for persons who a,re unemployed at the time the instalment is due.