Agricultural Workers' Insurance • According to the Government Actuary about
three- quarters of a million agricultural workers will come within the scope of the new Agricultural Labourers' Insurance Bill, and it is estimated that roughly 60,000 of them will be drawing benefit at any one time .under the scheme. This is a very necessary service to the workers in an industry which employs more people than any other single industry in the country, and whose structure Is changing rapidly with the introduction of machinery and the application of recent scientific knowledge to methods of production. It means that for an annual cost to the State of about £6,000,000 these workers will receive unemployment benefit in the same way (though on a lesser scale consistent with the smaller contribution), as the industrial worker, up to a maximum of 300 days in the year. If the Bill gets through Parlia- ment in time contributions will begin in May, and benefits in November, when unemployment on farm and market garden is usually at its highest.
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