Unemployment benefit

“ The scheme must avoid encouraging unemployment, and for this purpose it is essential that the rate of unemployment benefit payable shall be relatively low. It would be fatal to any scheme to offer compensation for unemployment at a rate approximating to that of ordinary wages.
“ 5. For the same reason it is essential to enlist the interest of all those engaged in the insured trades, whether as employers or as workmen, in reducing unemployment, by associating them with the scheme both as regards contribution and management. ”

“ They also recommended the provision of facilities whereby workers while unemployed and in receipt of unemployment benefit could obtain access without payment of fees to opportunities for continuing their education and improving their qualifications. Child-labour, they advised, should in times of unemployment be limited, and sickness and infirmity benefits increased, the age of qualification for old age pensions reduced and the amount of the pension increased. ”

“ Shortly, I will submit to the Congress the Employment Act of 1983, designed to get at the special problems of the long-term unemployed, as well as young people trying to enter the job market. I'll propose extending unemployment benefits, including special incentives to employers who hire the long-term nemployed, providing programs for displaced workers, and helping federally funded and State-administered unemployment insurance programs provide workers with training and relocation assistance. ”

“ Unemployment benefits will be extended for 11 million Americans who have lost their jobs and who, last night, again were lying in bed, just thinking, “My lord, I’m going to lose my unemployment insurance in a week or so.” ”

“ The purpose of the Act was to give prompt if only partial replacement of wages to the unemployed, to enable workers 'to tide themselves over, until they get back to their old work or find other employment, without having to resort to relief.' [12] Unemployment benefits provide cash to a newly unemployed worker 'at a time when otherwise he would have nothing to spend,' [13] serving to maintain the recipient at subsistence levels without the necessity of his turning to welfare or private charity. ”

“ The receipt of benefit over the counter of a State institution encouraged him to believe that the State took an interest in the welfare of himself and his dependents. Whether, therefore, unemployment insurance by industries as a whole or each industry separately may or may not be arranged in the future, it would be exceedingly ungrateful of the people in this country to overlook the national work that has been performed by the Ministry of Labour and the officials of the Employment Exchanges under most difficult circumstances. ”

“ Here in Illinois, that will mean an additional $100 per month to more than 820,000 workers who've lost their jobs. It means extended unemployment benefits for another 145,000 folks who've been laid off, are out there busy looking for work, but haven't found a job yet. ”

“ In the welfare state, it is more efficient to have full employment. Unemployment causes lower income - not only directly as in old-fashioned capitalism but also, more noteworthy, by the additional benefit burden. Unemployment can have an adverse effect on inflation when it causes a shift of the Phillipscurve.
It turns out that the propositions that are most interesting, from the viewpoint of political economy, do not require continuity, and can be formulated by assuming dichotomous High and Low productivity labour, combined with one class of Benefit recipients. ”

“ Sir Alfred Watson, the Government Actuary, before the Committee of Inquiry on the Labour Exchanges, pointed out the great financial benefit it would be to the principal industries to provide their own unemployment insurance, and referred to the large margin there would be available for the actual costs of the benefits. ”

“ The maximum benefit is to be ten dollars a week or fifty per cent of an employee’s wage, whichever is lower, and the maximum period of benefit to be ten weeks of any twelve months. The payment by each employer is to constitute the employment reserve of his firm and not to be added to the common pool. The creation of an Unemployment Administration of three members is suggested, one representing labour, one industry and one the general public. ”

“ Since 1951 farm income has been squeezed down by 25 percent. Save for a brief period in 1958, insured unemployment is at the highest peak in our history. Of some five and one-half million Americans who are without jobs, more than one million have been searching for work for more than four months. And during each month some 150,000 workers are exhausting their already meager jobless benefit rights.
Nearly one-eighth of those who are without jobs live almost without hope in nearly one hundred especially depressed and troubled areas. ”

“ In this country the traditional method of alleviating distress resulting from unemployment has been by Poor Law relief administered by Boards of Guardians. During 1920 and 1921, many persons who were uninsured and faced with destitution, and many persons who, though insured, found the benefit insufficient for the maintenance of themselves and their families, came to the Guardians for relief. ”

“ In this approach the cause of unemployment must be found in policies on taxes and social security, an area where policy can do a lot. In this third approach, technology and trade have reduced the problem of unemployment, since they have boosted productivity. Since the problem lies with labour costs and the demand for labour, supply factors like the benefit level are less relevant. ”

“ Under our proposal, a worker who's been unemployed for an extended period could convert the unemployment benefits he receives into job vouchers which would entitle his new employer to a tax credit. The overwhelming majority of those who've been unemployed for long periods would gladly trade their benefits for a job, if they could only find one. ”

“ In other words, only those industries might be expected to contract out which could, by reason of their lower rate of unemployment, provide greater benefits for the same rate of contribution as under the general scheme, or the same or a slightly better rate of benefit for a lower contribution. ”

“ This bipartisan package will give workers who have lost a job since the recession began last March an additional 13 weeks of unemployment benefits. It will also help unemployed workers keep their health insurance, and will give governors greater resources and more flexibility to assist those in need. ”

“ The report of the actuarial authorities whom I have consulted leaves me in no doubt that, even after all allowance has been made for the fact that unemployment may be more rife in the less organised and less highly skilled trades than in the trade unions who pay unemployment benefits—which is by no means certain—there is no doubt whatever that a financially sound scheme can be evolved which, in return for moderate contributions, will yield adequate benefits. ”

“ I really believe that putting purchasing power in the form of unemployment-insurance benefits in the hands of the people at the moment when the depression begins and when the first groups begin to be laid off is bound to have a beneficial effect. ”

“ Americans who have lost their jobs need our help and I support extending unemployment benefits and direct assistance for health care coverage. ”

“ Another helpful feature of unemployment insurance is the incentive it will give to employers to plan more carefully in order that unemployment may be prevented by the stabilizing of employment itself. ”

“ And, lastly, Labour Exchanges are indispensable to any system of Unemployment Insurance, as indeed to any other type of honourable assistance to the unemployed, since they alone can provide an adequate test of the desire for work and of the reality of unemployment. ”

“ That is the simple idea which is the very heart of the Industrial Recovery Act.
On the basis of this simple principle of everybody doing things together, we are starting out on this nationwide attack on unemployment. It will succeed if our people understand it—in the big industries, in the little shops, in the great cities and in the small villages. ”

“ Some Republican leaders actually treat this unemployment insurance as if it’s a form of welfare. They say it discourages folks from looking for work. Well, I’ve met a lot of folks looking for work these past few years, and I can tell you, I haven’t met any Americans who would rather have an unemployment check than a meaningful job that lets you provide for your family. And we all have friends, neighbors, or family members who already knows how hard it is to land a job when five workers are competing for every opening. ”

“ Notwithstanding the frequency of cases of this sort, it is, we think, clear that a majority of those who, in any given state of trade, come into distress through long-continued unemployment or chronic "under-employment," are—with many individual exceptions—either the less strong or the less fit, the less skilled or the less capable, the less responsible or the less regular in their industry of the wage-earning community. ”

“ Poor Law Relief—Principles Governing Administration of Relief—Ascertainment of Applicant’s Income—Assistance to Guardians to Carry out Works—Funding of Cost of Relief—Help to Poorer Metropolitan Unions—Assistance to Guardians to Raise Loans.
Unemployment is to-day a burning question; it will always be in industry an outstanding difficulty. ”

“ If a hardworking American loses her job, regardless of what state she lives in, we should make sure she can get unemployment insurance and some help to retrain for her next job. If she’s been unemployed for a while, we should reach out to her and connect her with career counseling. And if she finds a new job that doesn’t pay as much as her old one, we should offer some wage insurance that helps her pay her bills. ”

“ The primary cause of unemployment is want of work, the result of economic forces, but the cure of unemployment, according to Labour, is to be the provision of work by the Government in the teeth of adverse economic conditions. ”

“ Now, there are some people -- there have been just a handful of states, two or three, who have said, we don't want to take some of the unemployment insurance because what we said was that a portion of this unemployment insurance -- you have to make it more available to people who are temporary workers or part-time workers because the labor force has changed and there are a lot of people, particularly women, who, you know, they may have children, they may be working part-time, but when they lose that job it's tough for them. ”

“ It is, of course, necessary for us to guard against two grave dangers. Insurance against unemployment must not, by any chance or loophole, become a mere dole which encourages idleness and defeats its own purpose. ”

“ The greatest problem in modern industry as well as the greatest curse to the laboring classes, is unemployment. While unemployment has always existed under all systems of labor, it assumed added significance when the introduction of the wage system threw every worker upon his own resources and made him responsible for the care of himself and his family. ”

“ And my plan offers emergency grants to states to help displaced workers get job training and find new work, and continue their health insurance -- practical help in a difficult time.
And I'm working with congressional leaders on more ideas to help Americans who have lost their jobs. In the long run, the right answer to unemployment is to create more jobs. ”

“ When people have money to spend on basic necessities, that means more customers for our businesses and, ultimately, more jobs. And the evidence shows that unemployment insurance doesn’t stop people from trying hard to find work. ”

“ But if we shade our eyes from all this dazzle of detail; if we simply ask what has been the main feature, the upshot, the final fruit of the capitalist system, there is no doubt about the answer. The special and solid result of the reign of the employers has been--unemployment. Unemployment not only increasing, but becoming at last the very pivot upon which the whole process turns. ”

“ Today’s data shows, while jobs are coming back, unemployment remains a necessary lifeline for too many people, for millions of Americans. But a new opportunity — a good job, providing for your family, building up your community — those are the things that will allow us to dream again. ”

“ I must, therefore, recommend a three-tenths of 1 percent increase in both employer and employee social security taxes effective January 1, 1977. This will cost each covered employee less than 1 extra dollar a week and will ensure the integrity of the trust fund.
As we rebuild our economy, we have a continuing responsibility to provide a temporary cushion to the unemployed. At my request, the Congress enacted two extensions and two expansions in unemployment insurance which helped those who were jobless during 1975. ”

“ After four years of economic growth with eight million new private sector jobs, our unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been in more than five years. And with the economy speeding up, companies say they intend to hire more people this year. ”

“ All this organised attempt to prevent unemployment, which we regard as the primary duty of the National Authority, though we have reason to believe that it can obviate the greater part of the involuntary lack of work from which so many of the wage-earners now suffer, will not, of course, completely secure every individual workman in permanent employment. ”