§ Mr. Kinnockasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he is satisfied that adequate warnings are given to insured persons when arrears accrue in their various contributions; and if he will make a statement;
(2) if he will give an assurance that, in cases of minor considerations, he will give persons an opportunity to bring their national insurance contributions up to date to obviate the need for reducing benefits.
§ Mr. DeanMy Department sends a notice of the deficiency to any insured person for whom a flat-rate contribution is not recorded as paid or credited for every week of a contribution year. The reminder explains that there are time limits within which contributions must be paid if they are to count for benefits and gives ample notice to enable the contributions to be paid in time to count for any benefit which may depend on them.
§ Mr. Kinnockasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what discretion officials of his Department are allowed to exercise in not penalising persons who have omitted to pay a small number of national insurance contributions when such persons can show a record of otherwise regular payments.
§ Mr. DeanNone. Such discretion would not be appropriate to a contributory scheme. The conditions for benefit must be applied equally to all claimants. The absence of a small number of contributions would not necessarily affect entitlement to a particular benefit.
§ Mr. Kinnockasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will take steps to establish an appeals procedure for cases where, because of minor deficiencies in contributions, persons suffer a reduction in benefits.
§ Mr. DeanAny question arising out of a person's record of contributions can be290W referred for a formal decision to be given on behalf of the Secretary of State; from that decision there is a right of appeal on a question of law to the High Court.
§ Mr. Kinnockasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make provision for persons who are sick or unemployed, and therefore unable to maintain regular national insurance contributions because of consequent financial embarrassment, to be credited with contributions during the course of that sickness or unemployment.
§ Mr. DeanSuch provision already exists, subject to the production of evidence of incapacity or unemployment.
§ Mr. Kinnockasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many persons were denied unemployment and sickness benefit respectively because of an inadequate contribution record in the period September, 1966 to September, 1971.
§ Mr. DeanSickness benefit claimants who are not entitled to benefit because of deficiencies in the number of contributions paid or credited are recorded on the last day of each statistical year, and for the period in question the available figures are:
Statistical year ending Total number of claims Number not entitled to flat-rate sickness benefit because of contribution deficiency 3rd June, 1967 965,360 21,980 1st June, 1968 1,000,720 24,660 31st May, 1969 980,540 23,520 30th May, 1970 999,280 24,540 Records have not been kept since 1967 of the number of claims to flat-rate unemployment benefit which are disallowed because of contribution deficiencies, but the number of such claims in the twelve months from September, 1966 to August, 1967 was 160,531 out of a total of 3,325,000 new claims in the same period.