§ 17. Captain Stricklandasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has given further consideration to the anomaly whereby a compulsorily insured worker can obtain a free air-raid shelter whilst a voluntarily insured worker in receipt of an exactly similar wage and possibly heavier responsibilities has to bear the cost himself; and whether he will amend the Regulation so as to abolish this class distinction?
§ The Secretary of State far the Home Department (Sir John Anderson)No, Sir. The line of demarcation chosen has, I think, been generally regarded as a fair and sensible one.
§ Captain StricklandIs my right hon. Friend aware of the great dissatisfaction and difficulty among people who, while in receipt of very low incomes, are called upon to bear very heavy expenses to provide what is really a State necessity, in times like these?
§ Sir J. AndersonThe line was drawn after very careful consideration, and the matter has been discussed on several occasions in this House. Unless we adopted a policy of providing free domestic shelters for all, which would have been impossible in the actual circumstances, we were bound to fix some limit of this kind.
§ Captain StricklandSurely my right hon. Friend realises that the need for a free issue must depend upon the person's ability to erect the shelter and that that should be a fundamental necessity; and 958 will he give further consideration to the great hardship that is placed on voluntary contributors who are in receipt of very low incomes?
§ Sir J. AndersonThe income limit was fixed at the level recognised in the National Health Insurance Act, £5 a week, and it is impossible to reconsider the matter now.
Mr. De la BèreIs it not because they have no association to fight for them that they get nothing done for them?