British Commonwealth of Nations: Dole

• Share

COMMONWEALTH (British Commonwealth of Nations)

According to statistics released last week:

"A pound a week" ($4.87) was doled out last year to a weekly average of 977,000 British unemployed.

Some 442,000 Britons who declared themselves unable to find work were discovered to be humbugs and refused aid.

Sums expended on the dole in 1925 totaled £47,022,587 ($229,000,000).

Foreigners, keenly interested in this gigantic turnover in social insurance asked widely: "Who pays for the dole?"

Answer: At present employed British workers pay one-third of the dole in compulsory insurance payments deducted from their pay envelopes by their employers. The employers are similarly compelled to supply a third out of their profits. The Government makes up the last third out of taxes. Thus the dole is no "charity," but a true "compulsory insurance."

Many a British editor hailed the dole last week as the one factor which has kept Briton from social revolution during the present trying strike period.