INDUSTRIAL ASSURANCE AND FRIENDLY SOCIETIES ACT, 1948 (AMENDMENT) BILL (Hansard, 12 May 1958)

§ LORD MILNER OF LEEDS

My Lords, this also is a Private Member's Bill, and it was introduced into another place by Mr. Mulley, the Member for the Park Division of Sheffield. It passed through all its stages in another place without opposition. It is a simple Bill, designed for a very limited purpose—namely, that of permitting a small increase to be made in the amount of insurance on the life of a parent or grandparent which can be effected through an industrial assurance company or a friendly society. As your Lordships will be aware, the present permitted maximum under the principal Act of 1948 is £20. The present Bill proposes to increase that maximum to £30. The increase is roughly equivalent to the increase in the cost of living between 1948 and the present time. It is also roughly equivalent, apparently, to the cost of dying, because the cost of funerals—and, of course, this insurance is intended primarily to enable provision to be made for the cost of funerals—has also considerably increased. The present average cost 180 of a funeral is between £50 and £60—that is including all the incidentals, if I may call them such, though in fairness to the Association of Funeral Directors I ought to say that they have an agreement with the Board of Trade for a minimum cost of £25, which I imagine is almost always exceeded.

As your Lordships are also aware, the National Insurance Act originally provided a death benefit of £20, which is now £25; therefore £25 added to the permissible assurance under this Bill if, as I hope, your Lordships pass it, will enable a sum of £55 to be available to those who have to carry through the task of burying a loved one. Having regard to the limited purpose of the Bill and the advantages, which I think are obvious, I venture to hope that your Lordships will pass it through this House. I beg to move.