This is substantially the old Conservative Measure of 1923, though it is not clear how it differs from the original proposals of the last Government, since these were never published. The proposals which have become law are not generous. In the case of the humblest pensioners, they add 20 per cent. only to the 15 per cent. increase in pension enjoyed under the Act of 1920. Other pensioners get less, and those above the same limit as in the Act of 1920 get nothing. The limit above which any increase does not operate is £100, Unemployment Insurance Acts.
There have been three of these this Session, the main features of which have been (2) increase in the benefits; (2) abolition of the "gap system," so as to make benefit continuous; (3) unrestricted payment of uncovenanted benefit, which means that a man can receive full benefit not for what he Has paid into the Fund, but for what he hopes to pay in; (4) modification of the regulation which has hitherto debarred people distantly affected by a strike from receiving unemployment benefit. Generally speaking all these changes mean extra payment of £20,000,000 in unemployment benefit.
The Finance Act.
This Act gave effect to Budget proposals, certain of which, in the shape of relief of taxation, did not need legislative sanction whil others did. The main features of the Budget and the Finance Act were the reduction in the duties on tea and sugar, the abandonment of the duties on dried fruits and mineral waters, some very slight modification of the Entertainment Tax, and the dropping of the In~ habited House Duty and the Corporation Profits Tax. In the Fin~ lance Act itself as introduced there were few changes, though the Gov-that Entertainment Tax should not be charged on agricultural shows horticultural shows, educational functions and the like,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.