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 XIII. Miscellaneous questions

Collection:: Economics Books

210 MAJORITY REPORT. cases be paid in instalments at a weekly rate equal to the rate of sickness benefit normally payable by the Society. 496. We also think that the attention of Societies should be directed to the provisions of Section 17 (2) (b) of the Act under which they are empowered to make payments towards defraying expenses of members during their stay in an institution, and that Societies should be encouraged to make fuller use of that power by meeting the cost of small additional comforts for their members in such circumstances. REcOVERY OF BENEFIT OVERPAID. 497. We have considered the position as to the recovery from an insured person of any sum received by him from his Society as a payment in respect of benefit to which he was not entitled, and we examined Sir Walter Kinnear on the subject (Kinnear, Q. 23,825). We find that the Act makes no provision for re- covery by the Society except in the following three types of cases : (1) Benefit paid by way of advance pending the settle- ment of a claim for compensation (Section 16 (4) ). (2) Benefit paid by way of advance pending the settle- ment of a claim for a 100 per cent. disablement pension (Section 60 (2) ). (3) Payment of ordinary benefit to a married woman who was entitled to the special benefits of Class K only (see para. 515), but who had failed to notify her Society of her marriage (Section 56 (9) ), 498. On the other hand, it is provided by Section 21 of the Act that every assignment of any of the benefits of the Act shall be void. 499. In cases of overpayment other than those mentioned above, the present position is, therefore, that the Society stands to the member in the ordinary position of creditor to debtor, and is not ‘entitled to withhold from the member any benefit which may subsequently become due to him in order to recoup itself for the previous overpayment. 500. We are informed that there is ample evidence before the Department to show that notwithstanding the last-named pro- vision, Societies in practice frequently recover overpayments by withholding benefit subsequently payable, and moreover, often do so without the member’s consent. Recovery of overpayments by this means often involves hardship to the member, as he is called upon to repay a debt when he can least afford to do so. There is good reason to believe that Societies adopt this method of recovery because the alternative methods are either ineffective or (as in the case of legal process) involve a maximum trouble and embatrassment to all concerned.

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