-----------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------- |Employer’s |Employee’s | State | Share. | Share. |Contribution. -----------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------- Men | 4_d._ | 4_d._ | 2_d._ Women | 3½_d._ | 3_d._ | 1⅔_d._ Boys (over 16 and under 18) | 2_d._ | 2_d._ | 1⅓_d._ Girls (over 16 and under 18) | 2_d._ | 1½_d._ | 1_d._ -----------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------- The scheme is mainly worked through the Employment Exchanges. An unemployment book is issued to every insured worker, and, on obtaining employment, he is required to lodge it with his employer, who keeps it while the employment lasts, and when paying wages must affix to it a stamp of the value of the combined contributions of himself and the worker. The books are valid for twelve months, from the beginning of July in one year to the beginning of July in the following year—a period known as the “Insurance Year.” Every July the books are exchanged. Employers usually lodge the books of their workers in bulk at the Employment Exchanges, where fresh books are written up for the ensuing year, but a workman has the right to take his old book himself to the Exchange and obtain his new book for the ensuing year. Workmen are also entitled to receive from the Department, on application, a statement showing the condition of their accounts. The stamps representing contributions are sold at Post Offices, and the proceeds of sales are paid over weekly by the General Post Office to the Ministry of Labour. The remittances are placed to the credit of the Unemployment Fund established under the Act, and the State contribution is added to the amounts so received, and similarly credited to the Fund. When the Fund is in credit, i.e. when the revenue is more than sufficient to pay the benefits accruing due, any surplus moneys are handed over to the National Debt Commissioners for investment on behalf of the Fund. Owing to employment being exceptionally good immediately before and during the war, the Fund accumulated a considerable surplus, which amounted, in November 1920, when the Act of that year was passed, to about £20,000,000.