RELIEF NOT INSURANCE - CANADIAN UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF IN THE 1930S

This paper studies unemployment relief in Canada by examining relief policies and recipients and contrasting the Canadian situation with unemployment insurance in Britain. The nature of available assistance had little impact on the rate of unemployment, but was very important in explaining who received help. Relief schemes provided assistance on the basis of need rather than labor force status, so that the short-term unemployed, and unemployed dependents rarely received relief, while many of the poor who were not in the labor force were on relief. Demographic factors were of critical importance in explaining who went on relief, with older workers, and those with large families most likely to be on relief for sustained periods. The relief population appears similar to the working class in general because most relief cases show only one or two distinctive features. © 1990.