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