UNEMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE. ALTERNATIVE SCHEME FOR: Memo. by Chancellor of the Exchequer covering Memo.

The Means Test. It is believed that the features of the present means test which give rise to the greatest objection are: (a) the case where an applicant's household includes a wage earning member, and the assumption is made that, apart from an allowance for personal expenses, the whole of these earnings are to be regarded as available for the maintenance of the house- hold as a whole, including the applicant and his wife and/or children. Resentment is caused partly by the burden thus placed upon wage-earning members of the household, whose presence in it may be fortuitous, and partly by the detailed inquiries into the precise earnings of the wage earners which the system necessitates.