§ Sir R. Youngasked the Minister of National Insurance whether he is aware that a salary of £420 a year, including war allowances, deprives a member of a railway staff of the services of a National 784W Health Insurance doctor; if this deprivation is confined to clerical staff members only, or all railway workers; and what period of time elapses from the date when salary again falls below £420 a year.
§ Mr. J. GriffithsIf, as I assume, the members of a railway staff referred to are voluntary contributors, the position is as stated in the first part of the Question, and a lower rate of contribution becomes payable. The only other railway workers similarly affected are non-manual workers who cease to be compulsorily insured on attaining a rate of remuneration in excess of £420 a year; in their case medical benefit ceases after a free insurance period of from 18 months to 2? years. Voluntary contributors whose income again falls to £420 a year or below, and non-manual workers who become compulsorily insured because their rate of remuneration falls to 420 a year or below, become at once entitled to medical benefit.