From June 1921, to March 1922, the Unemployment Insurance Scheme was continuously carrying an average of 1¾ million persons, and 53½ million pounds of benefit were distributed; the Government’s estimate is 1½ million persons wholly unemployed from April 1922, to June 1923. These figures will involve the payment of sixty million sterling in benefit for those fifteen months; of this amount the State will ultimately contribute one-quarter of the whole as against one-fifth under the permanent scheme of the Act of 1920, and the liability of the State will continue at the higher figure until the end of the emergency period. For the financial year 1922-23, the estimates provided for £12,196,130 as the State’s contribution to the Insurance Fund and £551,760 to the Dependents’ Fund, making a total of £12,747,890. In April fourteen millions of the twenty million borrowing powers conferred on the Minister of Labour by the Act of July, 1921, were exhausted, and it was estimated that the whole twenty millions would be exhausted by July 1922. The Act of April, 1922, therefore increased the borrowing powers of the Minister from twenty millions to thirty millions sterling. The Efficiency of the State Scheme This was investigated by the Committee on National Expenditure (_see_ First Report _Parliamentary Paper_, 1922, Cmd. 1581, p. 144). They recommended, and properly so, that the question should be carefully explored of placing unemployment insurance on the basis of insurance by industry. They also urged an investigation by a committee of experts of the administration of the State scheme with a view to its improvement. Very considerable simplification and improvement would appear to be possible judging from the report of Sir Alfred Watson, the distinguished Government Actuary. The cost to the taxpayer of Unemployment Insurance and Employment Exchanges since 1912-13 is stated in the Report of the Committee on National Expenditure to be as follows: