HC Deb 23 October 1912 vol 42 cc2199-200W
Mr. DOUGLAS HALL

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether any provision has yet been made in the Isle of Wight for the sanatoria benefits under the National Insurance Act; and, if no provision has been made, whether he will state the reasons for the delay?

Mr. MASTERMAN

I am informed by the Isle of Wight insurance committee that they have made arrangements with two sanatoria and are in negotiation with a third.

Mr. CHARLES BATHURST

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether the case of May Down, a domestic servant, of Little Langford, in the county of Wilts, who is suffering from the early stages of phthisis, which necessitated her relinquishing her employment on the 2nd July last, and who has applied to the Wilts county insurance committee for sanatorium benefit both for her own sake and for that of the two young children who also occupy her mother's small cottage home, has recently been considered by the Health Insurance Commissioners, who have decided that she is not entitled to any such benefit; and, if so, on what grounds have they given such decision?

Mr. MASTERMAN

The Commissioners have not been asked to decide whether the person referred to in the question is entitled to sanatorium benefit. But the case has been brought to their notice by a private inquirer, who desired to know in what way the girl, who is not an insured person under the Act, could become insured and thereby qualified for sanatorium benefit. In response to this inquiry, the Commissioners pointed out that no person who has not been employed within the meaning of the National Insurance Act at some period subsequent to the 14th July last, or who is not engaged in some regular occupation upon the earnings of which he or she is wholly or mainly dependent for livelihood, is entitled to be an insured person under the Act. The girl is not, therefore, entitled to treatment at the expense of the insurance fund unless she is a dependant of an insured person and the insurance committee in the area decide to extend sanatorium benefit dependants.