§ 70. Mr. STEWARTasked whether it is with the sanction of the Insurance Commissioners that certain approved societies, pay nothing to voluntary hospitals, towards the maintenance of their members without dependants; and is it within the power of approved societies to retain the sickness benefit for themselves and thus turn the sufferer into a source of income without doing anything for him?
§ Mr. MASTERMANThe Insurance Commissioners have no power to compel approved societies to make payments to hospitals. Societies have, in certain circumstances, discretion to retain the benefit in their own hands; but the Commissioners have issued a circular (of which I am sending the hon. Member a copy), which sets out the various ways in which the money can be expended (including payments to hospitals), and adds that societies are bound to exercise their discretion reasonably, and that the Commissioners do not suppose that they will find many occasions on which the benefit could properly be withheld altogether.