MAJORITY REPORT. 
1 
"30 
Schemes for Unemployment and Health respectively. The 
former rates are 18s. a week for a man and 15s. for a woman 
with additions of 5s. for the wife of an insured man and 2s. for 
each dependent child—clearly a much more generous provision 
than the basic rates of the Health Scheme. Here, again, the 
comparison is made difficult by the irregular distribution over 
the insured population of the additional benefits. It must also 
be borne in mind in any comparison between the cash benefits of 
the Unemployment and Health Insurance Schemes that a sub- 
stantially lower rate of contribution prevails in the latter, and that, 
even so, that contribution provides medical as well as cash bene- 
fits. A comparison between the two Schemes must not disregard 
what the workers are paying for the comparable benefits. 
Nevertheless the fact remains that the basic rates of cash benefit 
under the Health Scheme which are all that a considerable pro- 
portion of the insured population are entitled to, are substantially 
below those for Unemployment Insurance, while the fundamental 
fact of cessation of wages is the same in both cases. Further 
the need for financial help must in general be greater in a period 
of ill-health than in a period of unemployment of the same 
duration. ~The existing position seems to wus difficult 
to defend. Differences of machinery, such as the Employ- 
ment Hxchange system in the one case and the Approved 
Society system in the other, a single fund in the one and segre- 
gated funds in the other, can be justified. But here we are con- 
cerned with the actual provision made in the homes of those who 
are in closely similar circumstances of distress. 
ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF INCREASED BENEFIT. 
308. Impressed by these considerations we have turned with 
the greatest sympathy to examine the possibility of increasing 
the cash benefits in one form or other. In this problem 
We naturally had again to refer to the Actuarial Com- 
mittee for expert advice on the problems involved. We asked 
them to supply estimates for the three following proposals—(1) 
an increase of the rates of Sickness Benefit to those of the Un- 
employment Insurance Scheme with corresponding increases in 
Disablement Benefit; (2) an increase of Disablement Benefit 
only; (3) the provision of allowances for dependants on the lines 
of the Unemployment Insurance Scheme. The report of the 
Committee on these references is printed in Appendix A to this 
Report, 
309. As we have already pointed out in Chapter VII, the 
Margin in the present contribution after allowance is made for 
the medical charges is much larger in the case of men than in 
that of women, being in the former case such as will produce 
with the State grant a sum of 4s. per head per year, and in the 
latter only 94. This disparity must influence very materially