§ Mr. D. GRAHAMasked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether he will lay upon the Table the Naval Order, issued at Portsmouth on 21st October, safeguarding naval ratings who had purchased houses and furniture on the hire-purchase system; and whether insurances are also being protected from lapsing by the Commander-in-Chief?
Lord STANLEYThe following is the Order referred to by the hon. Member:
Extract from Portsmouth General Orders.
1352. House Purchase and Hire Purchase Agreements, and Insurance Policies.
It having been brought to notice during the recent inquiry into the pay reductiins that hardship was entailed in many cases in which ratings were purchasing houses, furniture, etc., on the hire-purchase system, all firms known to be engaged in this business with Portsmouth ratings were communicated with and asked to make re-adjustments in their contracts to assist men who are placed in financial difficulty.
2. All the firms communicated with have agreed to give sympathetic consideration to requests from naval ratings and to render assistance where practicable. Commanding officers have been supplied with information regarding individual firms.
3. With regard to insurance, most offices have a scheme whereby a policy holder who 2088W is unable to continue his payments gets a free paid-up policy and therefore obtains that portion of the benefit for which he has paid, i.e., he does not lose the money already put in.
Some policies have a "surrender value" whereby there is a certain amount of cash guaranteed to be returnable in the event of the policy being cancelled at any time. As an alternative it can often be arranged for the policy to remain in force so long as the surrender value is not exceeded by the amount of overdue premiums and interest thereon.
In the case of "endowment" policies it is sometimes possible to suspend payment for a certain period, the date on which the benefits are drawn being correspondingly postponed.
4. All ratings are strongly advised that, before finally deciding to discontinue any payments, they should communicate with the firms concerned, stating their circumstances and inquiring as to possible concessions. If difficulty is experiened in the matter, report is to be made to the Commander-in-Chief by the Commanding Officer of the rating's ship or establishment.
With regard to the second part of the question, it will be seen that the Order is limited to advising ratings not to abandone policies without first taking advice as to surrender values and similar concessions.