The Workless Millions The unemployment figures for February are an
improve- ment on those for January, brit it must be remembered that January showed an unexpectedly heavy increase of more than 200,000 over December. That puts the February reduction of 27,000 in its right proportion, and the reminder that the unemployment total is still 2,700,000 will serve as sufficient check to any undue optimism. At the same time it is reasonable to hope that the normal seasonal reduction has now set in, and fair also to remem- ber that the official estimate of unemployment this winter was 8,000,000. In Germany also the peak figure is believed to have been reached in mid-February, with the appalling figure of 6,128,000. But there, too, a winter total of 7,000,000 had been freely predicted. Apart from the financial saving resulting in Great Britain from the difference between the estimated and the actual figures, the application of the means test to applicants for transitional benefit is, according to statistics just pub- lished, reducing payments under this head by 31,000,000 a year in London alone. The means test in the wrong hands may be the cause of real hardships, but the London report suggests that in roughly half the cases dealt with the applicant possessed sufficient means to make the grant of full transitional benefit unnecessary.
Previous page
