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APPENDIX A.
relation of the sickness claims of women to the standard shows an almost
continuous increase. So far as disablement benefit is concerned, the
experience agrees with that of men in showing the same feature of con-
tinuous growth, the claims, relatively to the standard, in the year 1924,
having been almost exactly double those of the year 1919. But the
number of women who remain in insurance much beyond the age of 30
is, relatively, so small that we are precluded from thinking that much
of the increase can be accounted for by the cause which we have suggested
in para. 15 to be operating in the case of men. A substantial part of
the increase of the women’s disablement claims must, we think, be asso-
ciated with the increase in the corresponding claims for sickness benefit
and be attributable to the same cause—whatever that cause may be.
19. The Selected Societies Experience in regard to women is given in
Tables A (8. & W.) and B (S. & W.), which relate respectively to the
sickness and disablement claims of gpinsters and widows, and in Tables A
(M.W.) and B (M.W.), which contain the corresponding data in respect
of married women. In regard to sickness benefit a conspicuous feature
brought out by these tables is the heavy pressure of the claims of married
women. Something of the kind was indeed to have been expected, but
the relative amount of the sickness benefit claimed by the married as
compared with the unmarried is arresting. An even more disquieting fact
is that the relative excess among the married women is growing. Taking,
for instance, the important group of ages 25 to 30 the married women’s
rate of sickness was, in 1921, 1°74 times the unmarried women’s rate;
in 1922 it was 1:98 times and in 1928, 2:42 times the unmarried women’s
rate. In respect of disablement benefit the claims of both unmarried and
married women have been, very heavy (relatively to the standard) at the
younger ages, but the relation of the claims of the married to those
of the unmarried has varied in a most singular manner, having been
favourable at ages between 25 and 45 and unfavourable over 45. These
phenomena appear to us to require administrative consideration; their
causes are far from clear to us and the prospect of their persistence
seriously complicates the problem referred to us. We are required, in
fact, to find the proper contribution for the sickness and disablement
claims of women at a time when (a) the sickness claims of unmarried
women at the ages of chief importance are about 40 per cent. higher
than the corresponding claims of men and the disparity is increasing;
(b) the sickness claims of married women are double the corresponding
claims of unmarried women, and the disparity is also increasing; and
(¢) the disablement claims of both unmarried and married women are
double the corresponding claims of men.
20. It is clear that in these circumstances we cannot come to any final
decision. The utmost we can do is to recommend for the time being a
basis which primd facie appears to make an adequate provision, relying
on (a) further actuarial enquiry as to its suitability after the lapse of a
few years, and (b) in the meantime, an effective administrative investiga-
tion of the features to which attention has been directed, with the appli-
cation of such remedial measures as suggest themselves. In the absence of
any authoritative standard of women’s sickness experience the basis which
we propose should be adopted is that provided by the Selected Societies
Hxperience of women’s sickness and disablement claims in the year 1923
with an addition of 10 per cent. But for the experience of the year 1924,
as indicated in para. 13, we should have been inclined to think that the
experience of the year 1923 provided as high a standard of the future
claims as ought to be necessary. In the circumstances we are constrained
to add a loading to the 1923 rates which we fix at the moderate figure of
10 per cent. in view of the fact that certain small margins arise in the
operation of the system of transfer values.
