ABSTRACT
The waiting period is the three days at the beginning of a spell of unemployment in respect of which no unemployment benefit is received. During the waiting days application for assistance can be made to the UAB, and 186,000 such applications were made in 1938, of which 120,000 were granted. This possibility of assistance does not reduce the strength of the argument for the abolition of the waiting period. In 1937 the length of the waiting period was reduced from six days to three in accordance with a recommendation of the Statutory Committee. It had been six days since 1911, except for two short spells in 1920 and 1924. But its "incidence" has varied with changes in the continuity rules. The commonest justification for the waiting period has been best expressed by the Ministry of Labour in its evidence to the Royal Commission. The argument is unaffected by the waiting period having then been six days.
