Report of the Royal Commission on National Health Insurance

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1740277147

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-132094

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report of the Royal Commission on National Health Insurance

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Stationery Office

Year of publication:: 1926

Scope:: XII, 394 S.

Digitisation:: 2020

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter XI. Proposal for dependants' allowances

Collection:: Economics Books

138 MAJORITY REPORT. SUPPLEMENTATION OF BENEFITS FROM POOR RATES. 305. This consideration, it may be said, is theoretical. We have, as already indicated in Chapter IV, received some definite evidence showing that there are cases in which the resources of the Poor Liaw are drawn upon to supplement the cash benefits of the Health Insurance scheme. In the first place we would refer to certain figures submitted to us by the Scottish Board of Health and contained in the table at the end of Appendix CV. These show that during the last three months of the year 1924, in 40 industrial parishes in Scotland, 2,952 insured persons in receipt of Sickness or Disablement Benefit to a total value of £1,674 received also from Poor Liaw funds assistance to the total value of £2,123 and had further assistance from other sources to a total value of £826. It may, therefore, be presumed that in the judgment of the Parish Councils concerned the total of these three sums was necessary in the case of these insured persons as a minimum provision for the needs of life. Test there should be any misunderstanding, we think it necessary to point out that the 2,952 insured persons to whom this supplementary assistance was given do not represent the total number of insured persons in receipt of Sickness or Disablement Benefit in the 40 parishes during the period in question. It is sufficient to inspect the names of the ‘ parishes ’’ concerned, which include Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, to realise that the persons in question constituted a very insignificant minority of all insured persons who drew Sickness and Disablement Benefit in these areas 306. In the same connexion, we may refer to the tables in paragraph 71 of Appendix CIV which show the experience in this matter of two very large Boards of Guardians. These tables also show that a certain proportion of insured persons resort to the Poor Law and are given relief in supplementation of the benefits which they are receiving under the Health Insurance Scheme. We have no reason to believe that the experience of these Boards is not typical, or that the Boards themselves are unduly generous in their administration of relief. The inference then is that in the opinion of these Boards of Guardians, as ex- pressed in practical day by day administration affecting the rates which they levy, the cash benefits are not in themselves adequate for the bare necessities of life; and that in those cases where no further financial assistance is available from voluntary insurance through a Friendly Society or Trade Union, private thrift, or help from relatives, the Poor Liaw has still to play the role of residuary legatee to the poverty and distress of insured persons. COMPARISON WITH RATES OF UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT. 307. We cannot conclude this survey without referring to the disparity between the rates under the State Insurance

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