The National Insurance Act at work : what it is effecting and where it needs amending / by Sidney Webb.
- Sidney Webb
- Date:
- [1913]
Licence: In copyright
Credit: The National Insurance Act at work : what it is effecting and where it needs amending / by Sidney Webb. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![has to bring to the notice of the statesman another grave public injury that the Act is demonstrably inflicting. In the one or two millions of households maintained on wages of less than per week, it is on the wives and mothers and children that the burden of the Act is, for the most part, now falling. The workman hands over to his “ missus ” out of his weekly wage no larger an amount than he did before the deductions began—we need not be cynical enough to say that she is lucky if with a reduced income he gives her even as much as before ! But, partly because of the new impost on the employer’s industrial operations, all prices have risen. Because of the Insurance Act, she can buy less food and clothing than before for the family maintenance. This means that the children, and, above all, the wives and mothers, have to go short. And it is the climax of the tragedy that it is just the children (and the home- keeping mothers past child-bearing) for whom the Act brings no benefits whatsoever ! CLAIMING EXEMPTION. Another source of hardship and injustice is the difficulty put in the way of workers getting less than I/6 per day, who are not liable to any deduc- tion from their scanty earnings. The forms which they have to fill up (and, by misinterpretation of a regulation, to fill up personally) are, in many cases, beyond their comprehension. In case after case it has been found that these helpless women are submitting to a deduction from their scanty wages or piecework earnings, for which there is no legal warrant. THE MOST URGENT REFORMS. At all points, indeed, it is the low-paid and casually employed workers who are suffering, and suffering very severely, from the Insurance Act. What the facts point to is, not any exclu- sion from the Act, but its very prompt amend- ment, so as (a) to raise the wage limit at which the worker is relieved from direct personal con- tribution from eighteenpence a day, which is now the law, to at least three and sixpence a day, or a guinea a week, an amount which would still be below the Booth and Rowntree “Poverty line” ; and (b) to place all casually employed labourers and out- workers in an equivalent position, on the ground that (even where they earn a higher hourly rate) their average weekly income throughout the year is practically never above that level. Meanwhile, the regulations should secure that none of those whom the Act relieves from direct personal con- tribution are practically compelled to make it.* * It seems an uncalled for anomaly that, whereas a British subject may, without loss, postpone his entry into insurance from 16 to 21 if he spends the intervening time in education or apprenticeship [sec. 9 (4)], an alien boy or girl must enter (c) The Approved Societies and their Membership. The whole working of the Insurance Act depends on the “ Approved Societies.” It is their officers and their committeemen who have to determine eligibility and pay out benefits. It is they who must maintain the solvency of the Insurance Fund. The Government, though It compels contribution, collects the money, fixes the rates of premium and benefits, lays down the conditions of eligibility, and looks after the invest- ments, assumes no responsibility for meeting the claims as they come in.* If a society cannot meet its claims, or is declared on the triennial valuation to show an actuarial deficiency, the then existing members are to suffer. What, then, are the socie- ties to which such interests have been entrusted? It had been assumed by the public, not without grounds in the statements made during the dis- cussions on the Insurance Bill, that the adminis- tration of the benefits would be entrusted to the well-known Friendly Societies, the great national “Orders, ” with their well-organised local “Courts” and “ Lodges,” and (as regards those engaged in their respective trades) the Trade Unions and their local branches. Instead of a Government guarantee, we were to rely on the instincts of a free people ! THE PEOPLE’S OWN SOCIETIES. A great point was made of the “ democratic self-government ” of the local organisations, “Courts” and “Lodges” and “Branches,” which this free people had spontaneously evolved, and also of the protection against malingering and fraud which would be afforded by the neigh- bourly supervision by the members of each other. But whilst the Bill was before the House of Commons, Mr. Lloyd George came to realise that these existing societies were very far from cover- ing the whole field, especially as regards the four million women who were to be brought in. Under pressure the door was opened to newly-established societies. The Commissioners failed to use their powers to guide or regulate what Parliament had left uncontrolled. In the mad rush which marked into insurance, and therefore into employment, before reach- ing the age of 17 [sec. 45 (i)], or else find that the benefits to which the compulsory contribution entitles him will be much diminished throughout his whole life. This seems very hard on the bright young alien boys and girls who are being urged to compete for County Council Interrriediate and Senior Scholarships. There seems no reason why the proviso in sec. 9 (4) should not be made to apply to aliens as to British subjects. * Apparently, during the first three years, up to valua- tion, an approved society that was “ outrunning the con- stable ” would be allowed to overdraw its account in the Insurance Fund, on giving security for devotion of the sums drawn to proper purposes. The resultant deficit that would be discovered on valuation would have to be met by the members at that date, or those subsequently joining.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22463215_0007.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
