The Allowance for a Child We should be loath to
support any proposal which threatened to destroy the solvency of the Unemployment Insurance Fund, but there appears to be no such danger in Captain Crookshank'S amendment to Clause 3 of the new Bill to raise the benefit for a dependent child from 2s. to 3s. a week. The system either embodies the principle of family allowance or it does not. Since in fact it does, there is no justification in fixing the benefit at a sum on which a child cannot be maintained. That was clearly the feeling of the House of Commons which, left to itself, would certainly not have thrown out the amend- ment, as it did, by 200 to 104. Sir Henry Betterton, evidently uneasy about the matter, pointed out that adjustments could be recommended by the Committee set up under the Bill. But why should the House devolve this responsibility upon the Committee, which will naturally be disposed to accept a scale of benefit fixed by the House ? The fund is likely to show a surplus and there could be no better use for it than this. We hope the Government will reconsider the matter.
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