The circumstances under which the introduction of this Bill is necessitated are as follows:—
The present Scheme of Unemployment Benefit, which is an Emergency Scheme, provides that in the period from 2nd November, 1922, to 1st July, 1923, not more than 22 weeks' benefit could be drawn. At the end of the period namely, 1st July, the normal Unemployment Insurance Scheme would come into operation. It will be appreciated that those who began to draw benefit on or about 2nd November last exhaust the 22 weeks on or about April 4th, and will have no provision made for them during the three months thereafter to 1st July. When 1st July comes, a large number of them would have so few contributions to their credit as to entitle them only to a few weeks' benefit under the normal Insurance Scheme. The Bill, accordingly, proposes to make provision for the gap between April 4th and the 1st July, and while terminating what is known as Uncovenanted Benefit, that is to say, Benefit not supported by contributions, to give a temporarily enhanced value to the contributions which unemployed workers have to their credit, and thus enable them to draw more benefit than if the normal relation of contributions to benefit was in operation. The Bill covers only the period to 17th October next, and is, therefore, in the nature of an emergency measure. I beg to move accordingly.