there were offices to help the unemployed find work
by 1913, 430 labour exchanges were operating
by 1914, 3,000 people a day were being provided with work
The limitations of this were:
it was not compulsory for employers to register vacancies
it was also criticised for only finding temporary and low paid work, so did not reduce poverty
National Insurance Act (Part 2) 1911
The successes of this were:
after one week, an insured worker losing their job would receive 7 shillings a week, for 15 weeks
to receive this - workers paid 2.5d per week, employers paid 2d per week, state paid 3d per week
many trades were involved, e.g. shipbuilding, mechanical engineering, construction, iron founding, sawmilling - the scheme was compulsory for these trades.
The limitations of this were:
cover was only provided for a limited time depending on contributions - after this, the Poor Law had to be used
if the worker was fired for bad conduct, no benefit was provided
there was no provision for the worker’s family
insurance was only available in certain trades and only insured about 2 million workers
it became too expensive for the Government after World War One