§ 81. Mr. Ellis Smithasked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance if he is aware that Report III, The Financing of Social Security, published by the 9W International Labour Organisation Conference held at Geneva, 1955, shows on page 28 that in the case of six European countries the social insurance benefits expressed as a percentage of the respective national incomes amount to a higher figure than in the case of the United Kingdom; and if he will now review the amount of the benefits provided by this country so that they are equal to the most generous in Europe.
§ Miss PittI assume the hon. Member refers to the table of statistics on page 128 of this Report. These figures are not restricted to social insurance benefits but cover a much wider field as defined on page 88 of the Report. In view of this and of the subsequent warnings in the Report about the use of the figures, I do not think that they can lead to any useful conclusion with regard to the social insurance benefits in this country.
§ 82. Mr. Ellis Smithasked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance if he will have an investigation made into total social insurance benefits expressed as a percentage of national income for 1946, 1948, 1952, 1953, 1954 and 1955, respectively, and have the results published in the OFFICIAL REPORT in tabular form.
§ Miss PittThe proportion of the national income spent on social insurance benefits provided under the National Insurance Schemes was as follows:
Per cent. 1946 1948 1952 1953 1954 1.5 3.2 3.4 3.6 3.4 Figures for 1955 are not yet available.