§ 39. Mr. John McKayasked the Minister of National Insurance if she is aware that the National Assistance Department is bringing pressure to bear upon workmen who are in receipt of national assistance by refusing them any further national assistance as soon as they are re-engaged for work unless they ask the employer for an advance before the ordinary pay day, which may be a fortnight after re-engagement, then, if an advance of wages is refused national assisttance is given, but if the advance is obtained, national assistance is reduced by the amount of wages advanced; and if she will stop this practice which causes workmen to beg from employers.
§ Dr. SummerskillI understand from the Board that they are aware of the difficulties in this type of case and are considering them. I cannot, however, accept the suggestion that they should always be solved at the expense of the Exchequer.
§ Mr. McKayIs the Minister aware that by this system the Department have taken advantage of low-paid workers and are causing such men to live up to two weeks on one week's wage? Is she also aware that this system creates invidious distinctions? When one man gets full national assistance for a week and another gets scarcely any at all for the same week it creates very bad feeling about the Department?
§ Dr. SummerskillMy hon. Friend has not been fully informed of the correct position. There is a growing practice among employers to defer the payment of wages, sometimes to the extent of a fortnight, and the National Assistance Board are now making something like 6,000 or 7,000 payments a week in respect of these cases. I am sure my hon. Friend would be the last to ask the Exchequer to subsidise a private employer who is not fulfilling his obligations.