Social insurance and allied services : memorandum on the Beveridge Report
1943-02-10 1943 1940s 24 pages 21. (a) The period between the end of the last war and the outbreak of this war demonstrated conclusively that the rise in our unemployment figure was related to the decline in our export trade, and it was in our basic exporting industries that the increased unemploym...
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
10 February 1943
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/6143A01F-A394-4D5D-B2B2-602C14C36BC0 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/2752D4AC-C215-4C6B-A8FF-190FF0726567 |
| Summary: | 1943-02-10
1943
1940s
24 pages
21. (a) The period between the end of the last war and the outbreak of this war demonstrated conclusively that the rise in our unemployment figure was related to the decline in our export trade, and it was in our basic exporting industries that the increased unemployment really resided. Until, therefore, we have had some actual experience of trading under post-war conditions, an unemployment percentage of 10% on any long term view would, judging from past experience, seem to be an optimistic assumption. (b) The period between the two wars also demonstrated that the unemployment percentage was influenced by the conditions attached to the drawing of Unemployment Insurance Benefit. In the days of Uncovenanted Benefit, the figures grew alarmingly as they also did when the test of "genuinely seeking work" was removed. The "Beveridge" plan proposes to pay benefit permanently - at increased rates - without any condition attached except that if, at the end of six months, an insured person cannot be given employment at his or her own trade, he or she must agree to undergo training in some other trade in which presumably he or she could be offered employment when the training was completed. While recognising the necessity for increasing the flexibility and mobility of labour as a factor in mitigating unemployment, one has only to contemplate the difficulty of drafting and enforcing such a Regulation, to realise that an employment percentage based on such a condition being operated may not turn out to be entirely reliable. (c) Another feature worthy of consideration is that the unemployment figure is affected by the extent of the difference between what a man gets for working as against what he gets while unemployed. Under the "Beveridge" plan, an unemployed man, with a wife and one child, would receive 48/-. During his unemployment he would be relieved of his 4/3d contribution and of travelling and other expenses which he would normally incur when at work. It would therefore mean that the minimum wage at which such a man could be expected to accept a job would have to be something a little higher than £3 a week if he was to derive any advantage from working. That aspect of the relationship between the unemployment figure and wages was referred to by Mr. Rowntree in an Article in the "Manchester Guardian" of 5th December when, while welcoming the "Beveridge" plan, he pointed out that it was necessary to make "the reservation that, in a plan to abolish mass unemployment, there must be a check on the tendency towards rigidity which is likely to develop as a consequence of a security plan that provides benefits at a higher scale than at present for an unlimited period and without a means test". (d) There is a section of opinion which thinks that the contributions paid by employers do not affect our unemployment figures and one often finds these contributions disposed of as merely being a small percentage of an industry's cost of production. The fact is, however, that these contributions, levied before profits can be made, are a direct tax on employment and their incidence cannot be looked at from the standpoint of an individual industry for their incidence is cumulative. It takes, for example, two tons of coal to make a ton of steel and the added cost of coal arising from the employers' contributions is passed on to the iron and steel manufacturer and, with his similar costs, is passed on to the engineer, and so on, until the finished product is ready for sale at home or abroad. These/
200/B/3/2/C216/5/50 |
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |