§ 29. Mr. HARMSWORTHasked the Minister of Labour whether he is taking any steps to prevent the recurrence of errors such as those representing over a half a million sterling referred to in the Unemployment Fund Account, 1923–24, and in the Report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General thereon?
§ Mr. SHAWI assume the hon. Member refers to the year 1922–23, not 1923–24. A sum of £468,444 in contributions was paid in error and subsequently refunded, principally on account of the exclusion of permanent railway servants by administrative order and of decisions of the High Court with regard to the definition of domestic service. These erroneous payments were due to temporary uncertainty as to the scope of the scheme. The other material item is £62,645, representing benefit paid in error. This is about one-seventh of 1 per cent. of the amount of benefit paid, namely, about £42,000,000. In paying out so large a sum in more than 50,000,000 separate payments, a small proportion of error is unavoidable, but every effort is made to restrict errors to a minimum.