§ Major EDMONDSONasked the Minister of Labour whether he has any recent information as to the extent to which unemployment benefit is received during the season by seasonal workers who are disqualified under the anomalies regulation for the receipt of benefit during the off-season?
§ 2. Sir H. BETTERTONIn order to obtain recent information with regard to the operation of Regulation 2 of the Anomalies Regulations (Seasonal Workers) an analysis has been made of the benefit experience of one-third of all the claimants whose claims to unemployment benefit or transitional payments were disallowed under the regulation in the three months September to November, 1933. The cases of 3,604 claimants were examined, of whom 1,863 were men and 1,741 women.
Results of Inquiry.
Duration of season.—The average duration of the season was five months four days for men and four months sixteen days for women.
Benefit received.—The proportion of the persons covered by the inquiry who 374W received either benefit or transitional payments, or both, during the season and the proportion of the season during which such benefit or payments were drawn were as follow:
Men. Women. Percentage receiving benefit or transitional payments 48.1 42.5 Average number of days drawn 39 35 Percentage of season for which payment was received 28.5 28.2 Among the men, salmon fishers, waiters, and certain classes of labourers received amounts well in excess of the average, and the same is true among women of kipperers and other fish workers.
Twenty per cent. of the men and 16.6 per cent. of the women received payment for more than half the season.
Of the 896 men in the sample who received payment of some kind, 601 received insurance benefit at some time and 405 received transitional payments, while of the 740 women who received payment, 574 received insurance benefit and 231 received transitional payments. Some men and women received both.
Relation between contributions and benefit.
From the sample, it appears that the benefit and transitional payments received during the 1933 season were well in excess of the amount of the contributions paid by workers, employers and the State and was over three times as great as the amount of the contributions paid by all the seasonal workers, including those who were not unemployed during the season.
A full report of the results of the inquiry will appear in the February issue of the Ministry of Labour Gazette.