While all claims to benefit have, in the first instance, to be made at an Employment Exchange—where benefit is in general paid—power is given to the Minister under Section 17 of the Act of 1920 to enter into arrangements with associations of contributors (practically all Trade Unions) under which members of such associations may prove their unemployment and receive their benefit through the machinery of the association. Before such an arrangement can be made, the Minister has to be satisfied that the rules of the association provide for payment out of its own funds of unemployment benefit to its members, and that the association has in operation a system for obtaining notification of opportunities of employment and of placing its members in employment. State benefit paid out by associations under this arrangement is subsequently repaid to the association from the Unemployment Fund. The associations are further entitled to a grant-in-aid of their administrative expenses not exceeding 1_s._ for every week of State benefit paid to their members under the arrangement. Shortly before the decline in trade, which began in the autumn of 1920, arrangements were completed or were in course of completion under Section 17 with nearly 200 associations having a membership of nearly 4,000,000 persons. Owing, however, to the increase of industrial depression and the consequent strain on the financial resources of the associations, a number of these arrangements were either terminated or not completed. The number of arrangements in operation on July 31, 1922, was 145, covering a membership of rather more than 1,000,000.