§ Mr. HUTCHISONasked the Minister of Health whether his attention has been called to the hardship upon insured persons under the National Health Insurance scheme whose employers default without having properly stamped the requisite cards, although the employes themselves have had the statutory deductions made from their 1844W wages; whether the Department, in endeavouring to recover from such employers the unpaid sums, always first satisfies its own claim in respect of any money recovered, leaving the employers either themselves to sue the employers or to pay the insurance contributions a second time if they wish to remain in insurance; and whether he will consider altering the law to give the employés fairer treatment?
Sir H. YOUNGCases of the kind referred to in the first part of the question occasionally arise, and in all such cases the Department takes all possible steps to recover the unpaid contributions. In any case where the unpaid contributions are recovered in whole or in part they are credited to the insured persons concerned. With regard to the last part of the question, I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply which I gave on 27th June last to my hon. Friend the Member for Gillingham (Sir R. Gower).