The National Insurance Act at work : what it is effecting and where it needs amending / by Sidney Webb.

  • Webb, Sidney, 1859-1947.
Date:
[1913]
Catalogue details

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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    society, those organised in connection with the profit-making “ Industrial Insurance ” Com- panies. Of these, the mammoth “ Prudential,” with 20,000 paid agents, has six separate “ approved societies,” each bearing its name, for Men, Women, Miners, Agricultural Workers, Domestic Servants, and Laundresses respectively ; whilst the ten rival industrial insurance com- panies which are now associated as the National Amalgamated Approved Society for National Insurance (30,000 paid agents) form one such society only. A few other ” collecting societies,” not working for the profit of private shareholders, such as the Royal Liver Friendly Society and the Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society, have also founded ‘‘ approved societies ” or ‘‘ State sec- tions ” of their own. THE GREAT SCOOP ! Summ,ing up the result so far, we see that all the Trade Unions and Friendly Societies, taken together, do not seem to have enrolled more than a million and three-quarters of previously unin- sured persons—perhaps, after deducting transfers from one to another, not more than a million and a half, of whom about one-third are women. What has become of the rest of the seven and a half millions (over 4 million men and more than million women) whom the Act was to bring into insurance? These six millions, ■ four-fifths of all the previously uninsured persons in the Kingdom, have fallen into the hands of the 50,000 agents of the two great organisations formed by the Industrial Insurance Companies, the Pru- dential alone now counting some three millions of members in its six ‘‘ approved societies ”— having, it is reported, enrolled no fewer than 170,000 in a single day ! And out of the six million members thus enlisted, it seems that at least three millions must be wornen. To the infinite chagrin of the officers of the old Friendly Societies, whose support of the Act was gained largely by their hope of getting new members, the two great Industrial Insurance combinations have ” scooped the pool ” ! A TRAVESTY OF DEMOCRACY. To those who have any knowledge of the lives of the poor, the position of vantage in which the profit-making Industrial Insurance Companies have thus been placed, is of grave import. It is, in the first place, a flagrant breach of the understand- ing on which the Bill was drafted. Mr. Lloyd George was eloquently profuse in his declarations that the administration of the scheme should be in the hands of the insured persons themselves through their own democratically governed societies. It was on this ground that he refused to let the elected Town and County Councils have anything to do with it—they were, in his view, not democratic enough, not sufficiently providing for real self-government by these poor people! Now, his Commissioners have deliberately ‘‘ approved ” the constitutions of societies in which there is scarcely a pretence of self- government by the insured persons themselves—■ societies so formed that the insured persons do not even appoint any of the officials, cannot con- trol policy or administration. Will it be believed that the constitution and rules of the Prudential Approved Society for Men—to take only one example—provide, with the approval of the Commissioners, (i) that, subject to quite illusory powers of removal, the officers (who have been chosen by the directors of the Prudential Insur- ance Company) shall hold office for life ; (ii) that the committee of management (also so chosen) shall all remain in office, however much they may displease the membership, until 1916; (iii) that nine (being the officers) of the nineteen members of this committee shall hold office for life (as above); (iv) that of the other ten two shall remain in office whatever their policy, for eight years ; two for seven years ; two for six years; two for five years ; and two lor four years; in each case being eligible for re-election ! Needless to say the nine officers and the ten other members of this irresponsible committee are all, without ex- ception, the managing officials of the Prudential Insurance Company. And even their minute liability to submit themselves eventually for re- election is farcical.* This society of unlimited membership, enrolling recruits all over the United Kingdom, having already over half a million members, is nominally to be governed, in the last resort, by general meetings of the whole member- ship, assembling at 142, Holborn Bars ! f Twelve persons are to form a quorum ! When it is remem- bered that there is no provision against paid officials attending and voting; that the whole body of 20,000 paid agents of the Society are virtually required to become members, and that a sufficient number of these officials can (and of course will) always be directed to attend the meetings and ” support the Board,” it is plain that the hundreds * There are also provisions for the possibility of district meetings, which are obviously unworkable ; and, even if they were put in force, nothing can be brought before such district meetings which has not first been submitted to an aggregate meeting. I It has been seriously suggested that the approval by the Commisioners of a society constituted in this way is ultra vires, on the ground that the rules cannot honestly be said to comply with Sec. 23, 2, ii., in (i) making its affairs “ subject to the absolute control of its members ” ; and (ii) in providing “ for the election ... of the committee of management,” seeing that nine out of its nineteen members are given office for life, without election ; and also (iii) because the rules certainly do not provide, in the absence of any delegate meeting, ” in such manner as will secure absolute control by the members,” The Commissioners’ approval can only be lawfully given in accordance with the Act. Moreover, the stupendous change in membership since the date of approval imperatively demands reconsideration.