§ Mr. Lomasasked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance if she will amend the appropriate National Health Insurance regulations to allow a married woman paying full contributions to receive the full benefits when the husband is over retirement age.
§ Miss HerbisonThe National Insurance Act provides for fully insured married women to be entitled to the same benefits, generally at the same rates and on the same terms as all other fully insured people. The exception is that sickness and unemployment benefits are at a lower rate unless the woman is wholly or mainly maintaining her husband who is incapable of self-support, or is separated from her husband and is receiving little or nothing from him by way of maintenance. I have no proposals for changing these provisions.
§ Mr. Lomasasked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance why married women paying in full the same insurance contribution as a single woman receive a lower rate of sickness and other benefits.
§ Miss HerbisonMarried women who choose to pay the National Insurance contribution claim sickness and unemployment benefits, as a group, more frequently and for longer periods than employed men and unmarried women.