378

APPENDIX A.

We estimate that of the married men who are insured under the scheme
of National Health Insurance about omne-seventh have wage-earning
wives. The distribution of this class of wives with reference to industry
as a whole is, however, very uneven, a large proportion of the whole
number being employed themselves, and being the wives of men employed
in the textile industry, while among other industries, as for example,
coal-mining, the employment in industry of the wife of the insured man
is very rare. It follows that if wage-earning wives were excluded from
the definition of dependants and financial provision made accordingly,
the present deviations from the general average, which result from the
system of insurance through approved societies, would be accentuated.
At the same time we do not regard the point as one of such importance
as to justify us in advising that dependants’ benefits should be insured
through a central fund, with all the complications of finance and administration
 that such an arrangement would involve. The alternative is to
provide actuarially for the payment of the benefit in all cases in which
an insured man is married, in which event a small margin would enure
to the financial advantage of the societies concerned should it be decided
to exclude the employed wife from the definition of a dependant.
6. With regard to children the qualification in the Unemployment
Insurance and Widows’ &c., Pensions Acts is that the child is under
the age of 14 or the age not exceeding 16 up to which the child remains
under full-time instruction in a day school. In view, however, of the
administrative difficulties which would arise in establishing the
dependency of children over the age of 14, we are asked to frame our
estimates on the basis that benefit would be limited to cases of children
not exceeding the age of 14. Further, we are instructed that in all
cases children should be regarded as dependent upon the father only,
whether he is insured or not and without regard to the question whether
the mother is herself insured.
7. The estimates set out below relating to insured men provide
therefore for the payment of sickness or disablement benefit in all
cases in which the man is married or, being a married man or widower,
has children under the age of 14. The special data required are given
in Tables B and D of the Report of the Government Actuary on the
Contributory Pensions Bill (Cmd. 2406). In other respects the basis
of the calculations is in conformity with that adopted for our previous
estimates as explained in our Report of 13th October, 1925.
We have ascertained in the first instance the contribution necessary
to provide for sickness benefit for dependants at the rates of the
Unemployment Insurance scheme, namely, 5s. a week for a wife and 2s.
a week for each child, with one-half of these rates during disablement
benefit, with an additional allowance of 5s. a week (corresponding to
the wvife’s benefit in the case of a married man) for a widower with
children. The administration of benefits of this type would, we presume,
impose some additional labour on the approved societies; we have
accordingly assumed that it would be necessary to make some increase
in the present administration allowance, and for this purpose have
assumed that the rate of 4s. 5d. would be increased to 4s. 8d. We
estimate that the necessary contribution for seven-ninths of the new
charces would be as follows: —

To the Benefit Fund per week ...
To Reserve Values ... id

)

50

As we have explained earlier in this Report, the contribution required
to support the present liabilities of the system, with a further charge
of 3s. a year in respect of medical benefit is 811d. a week. Tf to this