§ 48. Lieut.-Commander KENWORTHYasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his attention has been drawn to the fact that during the week ending the 28th June an Industrial Assurance Court has been sitting in Hull, and that during four days eight claimants, resident in the Central Division of Hull, have recovered sums of money due to them from various companies on industrial assurance policies and wrongly withheld, and that there are a large number of these cases being dealt with; and what is being done to meet the cases of injustice to poor policyholders in other towns?
§ Mr. SNOWDENThe Industrial Assurance Commissioner sat at Hull on Thursday, 26th June, and heard five claims, two against a collecting society and three against an industrial assurance company. He dismissed two of the claims against the company. In the other case against the company no award was made, but the company, at his suggestion, agreed, in all the circumstances, to pay a portion of the sum claimed to the claimant. In the cases against the collecting society, the society did not dispute its liability to pay, and, in the Commissioner's opinion, had reasonably deferred payment till it could get a proper discharge. The Commissioner has heard 117 cases since the Act came into force, in 11 of which the claimant resided in Hull. A considerable number await hearing, and the Commissioner proposes to hear them locally, wherever, in his opinion, the facts or the circumstances of the parties require.