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Some Actuarial Aspects of Unemployment Insurance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2016

J. G. Kyd
Affiliation:
Government Actuary's Department
G. H. Maddex
Affiliation:
Government Actuary's Department

Extract

Judged by the amount of space devoted to the subject in the Journal of the Institute, Unemployment Insurance has received but little attention from actuaries in the past Public interest in the problem of relieving distress due to unemployment became pronounced in the early years of the present century and led to the appointment in 1904 of a Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and, eventually, to the passing in 1911 of the first Unemployment Insurance Act. These important events found a somewhat pallid reflection in our proceedings in the form of reprints of extracts from Sir H. Llewellyn Smith's address on Insurance against Unemployment to the British Association in 1910 (J.I.A., vol. xliv, p. 511) and of Mr. Ackland's report on Part II of the National Insurance Bill (J.I.A., vol. xlv, p. 456). At a later date, when the scope of the national scheme was very greatly widened, the Government Actuary's report on the relevant measure—the Unemployment Insurance Bill 1919—was reprinted in the Journal (J.I.A., vol. lii, page 72).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Institute and Faculty of Actuaries 1929

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References

page 104 note * Those interested in the question of unemployment insurance in foreign countries will find a concise introduction to the subject in Appendix No. 13 to the Second Volume of the Report of the “Blanesburgh” Committee.

page 107 note * Under the original Act the Board of Trade had power, under certain conditions, to make arrangements with associations of workmen in insured trades for the payment of State benefit. These arrangements, with modifications still continue.

page 112 note * These figures relate to the United Kingdom, the numbers for Great Britain alone being over 11 millions.

page 125 note * The unemployment book is in fact a card, similar to the contribution card used in National Health Insurance, having spaces on which are affixed Unemployment Insurance stamps for each week of employment in the contribution year; in addition it contains identification particulars and a record of the dates on which the book has been lodged at and removed from the local exchange.

page 131 note * It may be pointed out that, under the statute, the Service Departments pay Into the Unemployment Fund a sum which, together with the usual Exchequer contribution, is deemed to be sufficient to meet the cost of special rights which are granted to service men on discharge from the Forces.

page 140 note * It will be observed that the three percentage deductions have been added together to arrive at the total percentage of unemployment which does not rank for benefit. Strict theoretical accuracy would require that these percentages should be calculated with reference to the numbers remaining after the application of each successive test, on the analogy of decremental rates in a table subject to more than one decremental force. For practical convenience, however, the several percentages have all been computed with reference to the same denominator, viz., the total number unemployed, so that they may be summed without appreciable error.