S00 
MINORITY REPORT. 
of audit or of inspection or of appeal in the case of disputes is a 
sufficient safeguard for the insured person. 
35. We agree also with our colleagues that evidence from 
insured persons themselves would have been desirable and we 
recognise the difficulties mentioned. Our anxiety in this respect 
is not lessened by the observations accompanying the recom- 
mendations in the Majority Report that the Department needs 
further disciplinary powers to ensure higher efficiency, and more 
particularly with para. 242 of the Report. We also attach much 
importance to the observations in the Memorandum appended to 
the First Report of the Departmental Actuarial Committee, 
para. 13, “it . . . . seems to suggest that Societies are 
applying to the disablement claims of married women a degree of 
activity that might well be exerted, and at an earlier stage, on 
all claims of prolonged duration.” Further significant passages 
on this subject appear in para. 18 of the same Memorandum. 
36. In the absence of evidence from insured persons themselves 
we attach the greatest importance to the foregoing indications 
of features which must operate against the interests of insured 
persons as a whole and must give rise to grave injustice to 
individuals and classes who, so far as can be judged, most need 
the benefit of the Act. 
37. The tables of expectation of sickness and disablement 
benefits are not sacrosant, and we see little virtue in them in 
relation to a standard of administration. The real standard of 
administration is not merely that insured persons should be 
restrained from receiving benefits improperly, but also, and 
perhaps of greater importance, that insured persons incapable 
of work should always get the cash benefits to which they are 
entitled. If ‘‘ experience °’ belies ‘‘ expectation,” means other 
than drastic administration must be sought to right matters. 
CONTROL OF SOCIETIES BY THEIR MEMBERS. 
358. We have definitely come to the conclusion that the vast 
majority of insured persons take no interest whatever in the 
affairs of the Societies and that probably two-thirds of the insured 
population cannot exercise any real control in their Societies. 
The constitution and government of the Friendly Societies and 
Trade Unions, and of certain of the smaller centralised or 
localised Societies provide the opportunity for members to 
exercise their will; but the volume of evidence shows that 
insured persons as such have not exercised, and are not exercising, 
any real control. In those Societies, where the development of 
the ¢‘ fraternal spirit > was expected, it is admitted that the 
insured members ‘take no real interest in the work.” 
(Heather, Q. 5523,5616). In the case of the large Industrial 
Companies it is not pretended that membership control is