Big benefits for the jobless

What should be done to improve the perilous financial condition of the state-run unemployment insurance system at a time when there has been a sharp increase in the number of jobless people?

This question is being explored by the Labor Policy Council.

The unemployment insurance scheme seeks, first and foremost, to afford workers a stable livelihood and help unemployed people find new work. The Council must study ways to more strictly determine whether a person seeking unemployment insurance claims is entitled to such benefits.

The system requires both employers and employees to pay premiums equivalent to six-thousandsths of the salaries paid to the workers. Funds raised through such payments are combined with government contributions equal to 25 percent of unemployment benefits given to recipients.

To keep it intact, the government has had to use a portion of its surplus funds each year. By the end of fiscal 2003, however, the government could run out of such financial resources that once totaled as much as 4.7 trillion yen. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has generously expanded the list of other benefits to those out of work.

Some critics have said that the system should be replaced by one in which a loan is extended to a person who wants to attend such a program, instead of the government paying up to 80 percent of his or her school fees. It also has been suggested that the government narrow down the list of programs to be covered by its subsidies.

It is necessary to reform the system in a manner that will truly help jobless people acquire skills needed to find new work.

-- Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo