§ 40. Colonel Sir HAMAR GREENWOODasked the Comptroller of the Household, as representing the National Health Insurance Commissioners, if he will state what is the position under the National Insurance Act on returning home of a man who has been interned in an enemy country during the War?
§ Sir EDWIN CORNWALL (Comptroller of the Household)Section 13 of the new Insurance Act keeps alive the insurance of a man who has been interned, however long the period of his captivity, and enables the Commissioners to make a substantial reduction in the arrears of contributions accruing in that period. Further, Section 29 places a small but useful sum, arising from unclaimed contributions, at the disposal of the Commissioners, and I propose that some part of this money should be utilised in pay- 171 ing off the whole of the arrears as so reduced. The effect, as my hon. Friend will see, is that a person who has been interned will, immediately on his return home, be entitled to benefit if incapacitated, and will have no contributions to pay until he again returns to work.