Evening star., 1945-05-16
1858 Veterans
HereFiIeCIainls
For Job|ess Aid
400 of $500 District
Men Draw Benefit
Checks Each Week


District employment officials give
a variety of reasons to explain why
with Washington suffering an acute
manpower shortage and $4,000 job
openings to be filled, nearly 40(
veterans a week are drawing Fed
eral benefits as unemployed men.
They claim a number of the men
are suffering from physical handi-
caps which limit the number o1
jobs they can do, that some never
held jobs before they entered the
service and therefore are trained
only as Army specialists, that some
are holding out for stable. perma-
nent jobs-particularly Government
work.
Moreover, it was pointed out that
one of the purposes of the G1 bill
was to give returning service per-
sonnel chance to look around
and get settled in their new" civil
ian status. An Army survey some
time ago showed that large pro-
portion of service men and women
did not plan to return to their old
jobs, but hoped to get better ones
after the war, especially those who
have acquired special skills in Army
and Navy training schools.
Can Suspend Payments.
The District Unemployment Com.
pensation Board puts its position
this way: If the United States
Employment Service doesn't Offer
the man suitable work, we pay the
benefits. If we see the USES has
been offering him jobs which he has
refused, We suspend the payments
At present, District veterans re-
main an average of about six weeks
on the rolls of the Unemployment
Compensation Board, although some
have drawn their $40 checks almost
every week since the readjustment
allowance checks started going ou,
in September.
Since September, s168,855 has beer
paid to District veterans in read
justment allowances. This comes
from the Treasury by way of the
NCGCl dllS u. lit
money represents 8,503 checks te
veterans who certified they were
able to work, available for work, but
unemployed.
204 Claims in April.
During April, 204 new claims fol
the Federal readjustment allowance
were filed by veterans. Last month
according to District selective Serv.
ice figures, $40 District men came
out of the armed forces and back tc
Washington.
Between the new claims and the
continued claims, the Unemploy.
ment Compensation Board issued 81:
checks to veterans a week during
April. That means more than that
number of veterans received checks
since some joined the ranks anc
some left the ranks of the unem-
ployed during the month.
Readjustment allowances run fol
So weeks for all veterans with more
than 10 months service. Once these
Federal benefits are exhausted, vet.
Grams fall back on the Districts un-
employment compensation if they
worked in covered" industry
before entering the service and
have earned enough to have bene-
fits coming.
Not All Collect.
Not all the men who have filed
claims have actually drawn read
justment allowance checks. They
apply for this benefit when they
register for work at the United
States Employment Service, and il
they get a job within week, they
draw no unemployment check.
On the other hand, if they lose
the job, they are entitled to the
Federal benefits, and many of the
men now on the rolls are "re-
peaters," according to the compen-
sation board. Each week they must
certify anew that they are unem-
ployed. If they are referred tc
suitable work" and refuse to take
it, they are disqualified from re-
ceiving benefits for from two te
five weeks.
In order to make sure the man
is actually available for work, the
USES reports to the Unemployment
Compensation Board whenever a
man Is referred to work.
All Takes Time.
The USES said it was trying to
get the reports in every day, but
that sometimes it takes several days
to find out whether the man has
taken the job offered him OF
whether the employer has refused
to hire him. The USES said ii
sometimes takes five or six weeks
before the Civil Service Commits
sion reports on what happens to
veterans sent to Government agen-
cies for jobs.
A substantial group of the men
drawing checks are waiting for
Government jobs. If they actually
have a letter saying when they're
going to work, they are allowed to
keep on drawing the checks. How
ever, if they have no proof that
they have been accepted-even ii
they've taken Government exami-
nations-they have to take other
work if it's offered them or 60 of
the unemployment pay roll, the
board explained.
The board picked these cases at
random as examples of men draw
ing the checks: An auto mechanic
drew checks for five weeks; a
plumbers helper drew II checks;
a. coach cleaner drew 13 checks; a
bowling alley pinsetter drew 2s
checks.
Problem Case.
This was given as one of the
problem" cases: A veteran who
had been a building laborer before
the war filed his claim for read
justment allowances last Novem-
Der. According to the boards rec
ords, he was offered no jobs until
April, when he was referred to work
as a janitor. He stated then he
would take nothing but watch
mans job, so because he refused
this work and had been unemployed
so long, he was dropped from the
rolls.
For some reason this was re-
scinded and he kept on receiving
checks until May L, when he was