qualified for benefit if he had lost his employment as the result of a stoppage of work due to a trade dispute at the premises at which he was employed, and in such a case the disqualification lasted during the continuance of the stoppage or until the workman had obtained fresh employment in an insured trade. Disqualification for six weeks from the date of losing employment was involved in discharge through misconduct or in leaving employment voluntarily without just cause. Claims to unemployment benefit were decided in the first instance by a statutory " Insurance Officer." From the decision of this officer the workman had a right of appeal to the court of referees consisting of an employer, a workman and an impartial chairman. Further, the insurance officer had the right to refer the decisions of courts of referees to the umpire for final settlement.
Associations of insured workmen were entitled (Section 105, Nat. Ins. Act) to undertake the payment to their own members of unemployment benefit due to them out of the unemployment fund. Such an arrangement involved the payment of the State benefit by the association together with supplementary benefit out of the association's own funds to the value of at least one-third of the amount to be recovered from the State. In order, however, to estab- lish a claim for the repayment of State benefit already paid, the association was bound to satisfy the Board of Trade that the benefit in Question had been paid in circumstances which entitled the individual member to receive State benefit. This involved an approximation of the procedure upon claims to receive benefit through an association, to the procedure upon claims to receive benefit direct from a labour exchange.
The insured workman upon becoming unemployed lodges a claim for unemployment benefit at a labour exchange or other local office of the unemployment fund, viz. at one of the 1,048 branch employ- ment offices which have been established in less populous districts for the administration of the unemployment insurance scheme. In
' lodging his claim the workman indicates whether he wishes to receive his benefit through an association or direct from the office of the
, unemployment fund. His claim is then examined, and when a favour- able decision has been given, benefit is paid to him by the association
- or at the office at which he made his claim according to his choice.
i If the workman has chosen to receive his benefit from an association he will sign the " Vacant Book," provided by his association, as a rule each day. Many of the associations concerned have found it convenient to keep their vacant books at the labour exchanges. In July 1913 over 2,000 vacant books of associations having arrange-
. ments for the payment of unemployment benefit were lodged at
- labour exchanges. At that date arrangements had been made by 105
associations with nearly 540,000 members in the insured trades.
In Nov. 1920, immediately before the operation of the Unemploy- ment Insurance Act (1920), when the number of insured workpeople had been increased from 2\ million to 3| millions, some 5,180 vacant books, out of a total of about 8,600 maintained by the trade unions concerned, were lodged at employment exchanges. At that date
1 arrangements had been made by 92 associations with an approximate
' membership of 1,341,000. The reduction in the number of associa- tions was due to the amalgamation of certain trade unions.
Voluntary Insurance. Part II. of the National Insurance Act,
1 (1911), also contains (in Section 106) a provision intended to encour-
1 age voluntary insurance against unemployment, both in the insured trades and in other trades. The arrangement here was based upon the successful experiment made over a number of years at Ghent, and involved the payment of a subsidy to trade unions or other associa- tions of workpeople which make a voluntary provision for unemploy- ment. Under Section 106, the Board of Trade was empowered in such cases to repay out of moneys provided by Parliament, an amount not exceeding one-sixth of the sum spent by the association out of their own funds upon unemployment benefit, with a limit to the amount so repaid of 2s. per head per week in respect of members who have received benefit from the association. By July 1913, 275 associations with a membership of 1,104,000 had been admitted by the Board of Trade as satisfying the required conditions (as to the methods of proving unemployment, etc.) for receiving the grant. During the 12 months ending in March 1914, a total sum of 15,167 was paid under the section to 347 associations with a membership of 1,401,000, and during the 12 months ending March 1920 1,678 was paid to 397 associations with a membership of 2,608,273. Consider- able difficulty was experienced in the administration of the section in obtaining evidence which would satisfy the Government auditors that the payments upon which the associations based their claims for a grant had been properly made. This difficulty was due solely to the varying standards of clerical competence maintained by the associations in keeping their accounts. The section was allowed to lapse in the revision and general extension of unemployment insur- ance which was undertaken in 1920.
Rates of Contribution. The requirements governing the payment of unemployment insurance contributions were devised so as to charge a higher rate of contribution for engagements of less than a week's duration than for engagements for more than a week. At the same time provision was made (Section 99) for an employer, and, subject to the extent to which employers made use of the section, for workmen, to escape this higher charge by engaging workpeople through the labour exchanges and by handing over to the exchanges the work of affixing insurance stamps. When employers entered xxxii. 27
into an arrangement of this kind they were not charged the higher rate of contribution otherwise appropriate in respect of very short engagements, and as a further inducement to make such arrange- ments, employers were allowed to hand over to the labour exchanges the work of stamping the health insurance cards as well as the unem- ployment insurance cards. The intention of this section was to induce employers to give the labour exchanges an opportunity of regularizing employment by " dovetailing " a series of casual jobs so as to afford a reasonable livelihood for a limited number of workmen. Up to July 1913, arrangements under the section had been made by 592 employers in respect of 138,500 workpeople; in July 1914 by 899 employers in respect of 162,192 workpeople and in Nov. 1920 by 124 employers in respect of 29,334 workpeople.
Finally the Act of 1911 contained provisions for reducing the cost of unemployment insurance in respect of workmen who had experi- enced little unemployment. Thus (Section 94) employers were entitled to obtain a refund of one-third of their contributions in respect of workmen continuously employed by them for 12 months and (Section 96) a refund of the whole of their contributions in respect of periods during which short time was worked. Section 95 enabled workmen who had paid 500 contributions to recover at the age of 60 the amount by which the value of their contributions exceeded the value of unemployment benefit received by them.
Amending Acts. On Aug. 10 1914, the royal assent was given to an Act amending Part II. of the National Insurance Act upon a number of points, none of them of first-class importance, upon which experi- ence of the administration of the scheme had shown weakness in the principal Act. Thus changes were made in the machinery for the determination of claims to benefit and the arrangements for refund- ing contributions paid by employers and workmen. The Board of Trade was empowered to exempt workmen upon short time from the payment of unemployment insurance contributions, and associations undertaking the payment of State benefit to their members were definitely required to provide from their own funds benefit equal to one-third more than the amount of the State benefit. The Act of March 16 1915 allowed unemployment insurance contributions to be paid in respect of workmen engaged upon war work abroad.
Extension of Insurance. In July 1916, the scope of unemployment insurance was extended to include workmen employed upon muni- tions work, and particularly in the chemical, metal, rubber, and brickmaking industries and in the leather industry. This extension was made in order to bring substantially the whole working popula- tion employed in war industries within the scope of insurance, and the operation of the Act was to cease after 5 years or at the end of 3 years after the war, whichever was the later date. As the result of this extension the number of workpeople insured against unemploy- ment became approximately 3! millions.
In Feb. 1918 the Minister of Labour was empowered by order to exclude from unemployment insurance any branch of trade which had been brought into insurance by the Act of 1916.
Experience proved that the calculations, upon which were based the rates of contribution and benefit contained in the Act of 1911, erred upon the side of caution. From this cause, but also as the result of the period of good trade which followed 1911, of the practical absence of unemployment during almost the whole of the war period, and of the Out-of-work Donation Scheme during 1919, under which unemployed persons were entitled to a much higher rate of weekly payment than they could obtain under the Unemployment Insurance Act, the unemployment fund stood at 18,030,356 in July 1919. In view of this large reserve fund and of the increasing cost of living, a short Act was passed in Dec. 1919, increasing the weekly rate of unemployment benefit under the Unemployment Insurance Act from 73. to us. The requirements as to the amount of benefit to be pro- vided out of their own funds by associations undertaking to pay State benefit to their members were not affected.
Insurance Act of 1920. On Dec. 23 1919, Sir Robert Home, as Minister of Labour, introduced on behalf of Mr. Lloyd George's Government an Unemployment Insurance bill contain- ing proposals for a general extension of compulsory and con- tributory unemployment insurance. These proposals were ap- proved by Parliament, and the bill received the royal assent on Aug. 9 1920. This Act superseded the previous Unemploy- ment Insurance Acts, but the general character of the scheme of unemployment insurance remained unaltered.
The scope of unemployment insurance was extended to include all persons of the age of 16 and upwards employed under a contract of service or apprenticeship with the following principal exceptions: persons employed in agriculture and private domestic service; established servants of the Crown ; persons employed otherwise than by way of manual labour at a rate of remuneration exceeding 250 a year; persons casually employed otherwise than for the purpose of the employer's trade or business, and persons employed by public authorities and by corporations whose status approximates to that of a public authority, upon the certificate of the Minister of Labour that the persons in question are not subject to dismissal except for misconduct or unfitness to perform their duties, and that the condi- tions of their engagement make insurance unnecessary.
