HC Deb 10 November 1975 vol 899 cc551-3W
Mr. Thorpe

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many different benefits are paid out of the National Insurance Fund; and how many are not available to the self-employed.

Mr. O'Malley

The following benefits, as referred to in Sections 12,38 and 50 of the Social Security Act 1975, in Section 36 of the National Insurance Act 1965 as preserved by transitional regulations, and in the Industrial Injuries and Diseases (Old Cases) Act 1975, are paid wholly or partly out of the National Insurance Fund:

  • Unemployment benefit.
  • Sickness benefit.
  • Invalidity benefit.
  • Maternity benefit.
  • Widow's benefit.
  • Retirement pension.
  • Child's special allowance.
  • Death Grant.
  • Guardian's allowance.
  • Graduated retirement benefit.
  • Injury benefit.
  • Disablement benefit.
  • Industrial death benefit.
  • Workmen's Compensation Supplementation.
  • Industrial Diseases Benefit in respect of pre-1948 employment.

Those not available to the self-employed are:

  • Unemployment benefit (including earnings-related supplement).
  • Earnings-related supplement to sickness benefit.
  • Earnings-related supplement to maternity allowance.
  • Earnings-related addition to widow's allowance.
  • Graduated retirement benefit.
  • Injury benefit.
  • Disablement benefit.
  • Industrial death benefit.
  • Workmen's Compensation Supplementation.
  • Industrial Diseases Benefit in respect of pre-1948 employment.

The last five of the above list were covered by the broad description "industrial injuries benefits" in the reply given to my hon. Friend the Member for Islington, South and Finsbury (Mr. Cunningham) on 22nd January—[Vol. 884, c. 394–6]. Earnings-related supplement to maternity allowance was introduced in April 1975, after that reply was given. Special hardship allowance, to which the right hon. Gentleman referred in the debate on the self-employed, is not a separate benefit but is, like a number of other allowances, an increase in the rate of industrial disablement benefit.

The above lists of benefits follow in general the classification of benefits in the relevant statutes, and do not pay regard to subdivisions of the main benefits; for example, maternity allowance and the earnings-related supplement to it are included in maternity benefit, and widow's allowance and the earnings-related addition to it are included in widow's benefit; in the second of the above lists however it has been necessary to depart from this classification for those benefits which are only partially available to the self-employed.