§ 31. Mr. JOWETTasked the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster whether, in the case of an insured person in receipt of disablement benefit entering a charitable institution (whether or not making a charge for admission or maintenance), payment of the disablement benefit is withheld from the insured person during the period of such residence; whether, in such a case, if the insured person cannot otherwise provide the weekly payment required for admission, the disablement benefit has been in any instance allowed to be applied for this purpose, and whether it is proposed to allow such a course in future; if not permitted to be so applied and if the insured person has no dependants, and in the absence of any agreement between the approved society and the institution, will payment of the disablement benefit be suspended until the beneficiary leaves the institution, and the amount then due be paid to him in a lump sum; if so, what is the provision made for the payment of the amount due in the case of permanently incapacitated persons entitled to disablement benefit, and entering institutions for incurables or homes for the dying, without prospect of coming out of them alive; and whether, in view of the desirability of facilitating the entry into institutions for the incurable of permanently disabled persons having no dependants, the Insurance Commissioners will make it known that disablement benefit may be made applicable to the payments required by such institutions?
§ Mr. ACLANDThe National Insurance Acts contain provision whereby sickness or disablement benefit, so far as it is not payable either to the insured person or to his dependants while he is an inmate 420 of an institution, can be paid over in whole or in part by his Approved society to the institution towards his maintenance. The Insurance Commissioners have conveyed full information on this point to approved societies in a circular of which I am sending the hon. Member a copy.