The first report of the working of Unemployment Insurance (Part
II. of the National Insurance Act) was issued as a Blue- book last week, with a prefatory note by Sir H. Llewellyn Smith. While judiciously , admitting that there has been only six months' experience of the payment of unem- ployment benefit, and that so far the scheme has only operated during a time of exceptional trade prosperity, Sir H. Llewellyn Smith adopts a tone of reasoned optimism. The administrative strain of launching an entirely new scheme has been satisfactorily borne by the Board of Trade ; about two and a quarter millions of workmen on an average have held insurance books during the period under review ; the income at present received from employers, workmen, and State is about £2,400,000; the total expenditure on benefits, refunds, and administration has been at the rate of £700,000 per annum ; and the invested balance of the Unemployment Fund already reaches the sum of £1,610,000. In fine, the scheme so far has been proved to be administratively practic- able, it has increased five or six fold the number of workpeople protected by insurance against unemployment, and has at the same time tended to encourage rather than to discourage voluntary insurance. Mr. Beveridge's report is marked throughout by the same moderation and caution. For instance, be notes as one of the most striking features of the working of the Act that the number of claims, even in a time of exceptional trade prosperity, should be so great, and frankly admits that in some respects the full strain of the work has hardly yet been felt at all.
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