336

APPENDIX A.

be understood that if the tendency of the death rate is to diminish, the
proportion of the population surviving to the older ages will be increased
with a consequent addition to the liabilities, as originally estimated, for
sickness and disablement benefits. The probabilities of survivorship
incorporated in the present basis of the system are derived from the
mortality experience of the whole population of England and Wales in the
years 1908-10. If it were possible it would be desirable to compare this
experience with that of the population covered by the system of National
Health Insurance. The records of the Approved Societies are not, however,
sufficiently complete for this purpose and, to review the basis, recourse
must be had to the latest available facts relating to the whole population.
It is common knowledge that in recent years the general death rate has
fallen substantially, and an approximate measure of the fall since the
system of National Health Insurance was established, will be found in
Table (A) page 38 of the Report of the Government Actuary on the
Financial Provisions of the Contributory Pensions Bill (Cmd. 2406). So
far as the future is concerned reasons are given in paragraph 3 of the
Appendix to that Report (p. 28) for the assumption that the Life Tables
derived from the population of England and Wales at the 1921 Census
and the registered deaths in the two years 1920 and 1921 may properly
be employed for the purpose of a contributory system which is co-extensive
 with that of National Health Insurance. For the most part the
reasons here given apply with equal cogency to the case of the Health
Insurance system and we have accordingly adopted these tables for the
purpose of the new basis which we shall recommend

Tur SioRNESS AND DISABLEMENT RATES.
11. The present basis in regard to sickness and disablement is the
Manchester Unity Experience 1893-97 loaded by about 13 per cent. in the
case of men and 35 per cent. in the case of women, exclusive of a special
provision for married women. So far as men are concerned this basis was
adopted at the outset, and has not been subsequently changed. The
reasons for its adoption are set out in the first report of the Actuarial
Advisory Committee set up in 1912 (published as an Appendix (p. 552) to
the Report for 1912-18 on the Administration of the National Insurance
Act, Part 1 (Cd. 6907)). The loading is not the result of any exact
appraisement of such extra risk as might be expected to be involved in a
compulsory and wide-spread system of insurance as compared with that
arising under a voluntary system, but is the provision for any feature
of the kind that the margin in the original contribution of 7d. a week
rendered possible. This margin was fortuitous in its extent since it
arose out of the fact that, for administrative reasons, the contribution
had necessarily to be an integral number of pence per week. In regard to
women the Manchester Unity Experience (which was that of men only)
was also adopted originally and with the same margin—about 13 per cent.
—in the case of sickness benefit. For disablement benefit the original
contribution of 6d. a week enabled the margin to be increased to 19 per
cent. Material changes have, however, been subsequently made in the
financial basis of women’s insurance, chiefly as the result of the Interim
Report of the Departmental Committee on Approved Society Finance
and Administration (Cd. 8251). The effect, as indicated in paragraph 11
of the Report of the Government Actuary on the First Valuation of
Approved Societies (Cmd. 1662), was to increase the addition to the
Manchester Unity rates in the case of women by proportions approximating,
 over all ages, to 85 per cent. A considerable further provision
was made for married women, and this is now financed by the grant of
special reserve values for women who remain in insurance after marriage.
12. We have been supplied, for the purposes of our enquiry, with two
sets of material relating to the recent experience of Approved Societies
in respect of sickness and disablement claims. The first of these is »