Volume 1

Report / Royal Commission on Civil Liability and Compensation for Personal Injury.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on Civil Liability and Compensation for Personal Injury.
Date:
1978
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Report / Royal Commission on Civil Liability and Compensation for Personal Injury. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    448/568 (page 430)
    Workmen’s Compensation (Supplementation) Scheme In certain cases supplemeniation allowances are payable to people with rights to compensation under the Workmen’s Compensation Acts for accidents occurring or diseases contracted in employment before the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Act came into force on 5 July 1948. Contributory benefits The benefits listed below are paid out of the National Insurance Fund. Entitlement will depend, among other things, on the amount and class of contributions paid or credited. Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Unemployment benefit Sickness and Maternity grant Sickness and invalidity benefits Widow’s benefits invalidity benefits Maternity benefits Retirement pension Maternity benefits Widow’s benefits Child’s special Widow’s benefits Retirement pension allowance Retirement pension Child’s special Death grant Child’s special allowance allowance Death grant Death grant Duplication of benefits Certain of the main benefits listed above cannot be paid at the same time. The general principle is that if there is title to more than one benefit only the higher will be paid if the benefits are for the same contingency. For example, unemployment benefit cannot be paid at the same time as sickness or invalidity benefit or retirement pension as these benefits are for replacement of earnings. The new state pensions scheme A new pensions scheme starts in April 1978. Under the new scheme, retirement, widows’ and invalidity pensions will, from April 1979, be in two parts— a basic pension equivalent to the present flat-rate pension, and an additional pension related to earnings. Employees who are members of an occupational pension scheme which meets the necessary requirements may be contracted out of the additional pension for retirement and half the additional pension for widowhood. A contracted out occupational pension scheme assumes responsibility for providing that part of the additional pension. The state scheme will then provide the whole of any invalidity pension, basic, and any balance of additional, widows’ benefits, and any basic retirement pension. It will also continue its present cover for sickness, unemployment, maternity and industrial injuries benefits. The additional pension will be related to earnings between lower and upper earnings limits for contribution liability. These limits are reviewed annually and, from April 1978, are expected to be £17-50 (which is the basic pension rate) and about seven times that amount. Additional pension will be calculated as 1/80th of these earnings for each year of contributions to the scheme up to a maximum of + (20/80ths) of these earnings after 20 years of contributions. It will thus take 20 years for the full amounts of additional pension to build up but people who retire, are widowed or become entitled to invalidity benefit before then will benefit proportionately (even when, for retirement pension, widowed mother’s allowance or widow’s pension, they do not satisfy the contribution conditions for the flat rate benefit).