The Unemployment Insurance Act 1920 was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It created the dole (weekly cash

unemployment benefits Unemployment benefits, also called unemployment insurance, unemployment payment, unemployment compensation, or simply unemployment, are payments made by authorized bodies to unemployed people. In the United States, benefits are funded by a comp ...

) system of payments to unemployed workers. The Act passed at a time of very little unemployment, when the Conservatives dominated Parliament. It set up the dole system that provided 15 weeks of unemployment benefits to over 11 million workers—practically the entire civilian working population except domestic service, farm workers, railway workers, and civil servants. Funded in part by weekly contributions from both employers and employed, it provided weekly payments of 15s for unemployed men and 12s for unemployed women. Historian

Charles Loch Mowat Charles Loch Mowat (4 October 1911 – 23 June 1970) was a British-born American historian. Biography Mowat was educated at Marlborough College and St John's College, Oxford. John Ramsden (ed.), ''The Oxford Companion to Twentieth Century ...

calls this legislation "Socialism by the back door," and notes how surprised politicians were when the costs to the Treasury soared during the high unemployment of 1921.Charles Loch Mowat, ''Britain between the Wars: 1918-1940'' (1955) pp 43-46

References

Insurance legislation United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1920 1920 in economics Unemployment in the United Kingdom Unemployment benefits

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References