§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Social Services by what statutory authority he is failing to make available National Insurance stamps; what authority he has to enable contributors to omit stamping their cards each week; what authority he has to claim arrears at a subsequent date on his failure to make stamps available; and to what extent he estimates a short-fall in contributions to the National Insurance Fund since the commencement of the postal workers' strike.
§ Sir K. JosephThe temporary non-availability of stamps during the postal dispute makes it impossible for contributions to be paid by this method until they are again available. The authority to claim arrears of contributions is contained in Section 8(2) of the National Insurance Act, 1965, Section 3(4) of the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Act, 1965, and Section 95 and 96 of the National Insurance Act, 1965. I estimate that the current shortfall of contributions to the National Insurance Fund at some £50 million but I see no reason why this should not be made good when the strike ends.
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Social Services why he issued a statement on Friday, 12th February, regarding non-availability of National Insurance stamps due to the Post Office strike, in view of the fact that these could have been issued from his Department's office, local employment exchanges and other Government offices; and whether he will take this action in future.
§ Mr. DeanSecurity and manpower considerations, and the necessity for local offices of the Department to concentrate all available resources on benefit payments, rule out alternative methods of sale of national insurance stamps during the period of the postal dispute. Stocks of decimal national insurance stamps are in any case strike-bound within the Post Office organisation.