by Ken Tarbuck
National Redundancy fund borrowing from the Treasury accelerated recently when a further £400,000 loan was issued. This brings the total borrowing during the last five weeks to £950,000.
Payments from the Fund since mid-April have exceeded contributions by nearly £100,000 per week. Ray Gunter has said that by next February the Fund's deficit may be £4.5 million. The deficit can be met by borrowing from the Consolidated Fund up to £8 million, but if necessary this ceiling can be raised to £20 million. However, to check the borrowing, the Government is planning to increase contributions from employers and employees in February. The increase is — at eliminating the deficit in 1968, and arriving at a surplus by
Average individual payments from the Fund have been running at £180 compared with the £130 estimated in Ministry of Labour Surveys. Ray Gunter has estimated that drawings from the Fund would reach £650,000 per week in the noxt six months, compared with a weekly average of £430,000 from mid-April to the end of October.
What this indicates is that the present squeeze is making redundant more long service workers than was originally thought would be the case, and that this will continue. Also the planned increase in contributions to the Fund will be another wage reduction for all the workers still in employment, since the freeze is to continue. For the employers however, this will not be the case, since the White Paper on incomes policy, recently published, specifically stated that firms were entitled to increase prices if costs rose due to Government action. This is another instance of the workers being made to pay, and this time literally, for the problems of capitalism.