NATIONAL INSURANCE BILL (Hansard, 26 July 1949)

§ LORD CHORLEY

My Lords, this little Bill has been drawn up to remove a grievance in connection with the administration of the death grant which, as your Lordships remember, was introduced by the National Insurance Act, 1946. I am sure your Lordships will agree that it is a legitimate grievance, and one which ought to be removed. It arises in this way. The Act provides that, in order to qualify for the death grant, 523 the insured person must have actually paid since July 5, 1948, when the scheme began to operate, twenty-six contributions. I draw your Lordships' attention to the words "actually paid." This condition cannot be satisfied by what are called "credited contributions." Perhaps I ought to explain what is meant by "credited contributions." The regulations which have been made under the Act enable insured persons in certain cases to be credited with contributions in respect of which they have not actually made payments; for example, while receiving sickness, unemployment or maternity benefit. Many of the people who are being credited with these contributions are people who have in the past been under the earlier scheme and have paid contributions over many years. But, perhaps logically, the Act provides that as this is a new scheme, which came into operation on the date I have mentioned, those earlier contributions which have been paid cannot be taken into account.

The result is that at the present time a substantial number of people who come under the other parts of the insurance scheme are being excluded from the death benefit; these are people who have been sick, disabled, or unemployed for more than six months since July 5, 1948, together with their wives and their children; widows who are in receipt of the new widow's benefits under the Act, again with their children; and certain categories of young persons, such as those who are credited with contributions where they are continuing their education. Most of these people will, of course, qualify in the future, but at the moment the number of people who are estimated to be unprotected is no less than 500,000 persons. These are people who are substantially covered by the scheme, but who are not entitled to the death grant. As I have said, the persons who are affected by the requirement that there shall have been twenty-six contributions paid are in the main those who have been covered for many years under the old scheme, and who are often among the most needy sections of the population.

The purpose of the present Bill—which, as your Lordships see, is very short indeed—is to amend the Act of 1946 in order to permit that the credited contributions shall rank as a qualification for 524 the grant; indeed, the operative part of the Bill really does little more than add the words "or credited" to the word "paid" which appears in the Act. This is entirely in accordance with the proposals in the White Paper which was issued by the Coalition Government, where it was said that: the contribution conditions would be limited to those needed to establish that the deceased was in current insurance, or was the wife or child of an insured person. I need, perhaps, only add that the cost of carrying through this Amendment is estimated at the present time to be something like £200,000 per annum; but that, of course, is a ceiling figure, and as more people are able to pay their contributions it will rapidly taper off, until within a few years the amount involved will be only a nominal figure. I am sure your Lordships will agree that this is a Bill which ought to receive everybody's support. I beg to move.