Social insurance.

Date:
1944
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Social insurance. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    resources. It suffices here to say that the health functions of the public assistance authorities will be merged in the new National Health Service; that the care and maintenance of orphaned and deserted children will remain within the sphere of local government, as will the provision of accommoda- tion for such old persons as need it. On the other hand, the duty will be placed on the Assistance Board of making suitable provision for those, other than the sick, the young and the old, for whom assistance in cash is not appropriate. The Board will also be given the functions of the Customs and Excise Department in respect of non-contributory pensions, so far as they continue. 161. The Government consider that ultimate responsibility for both insur- ance and assistance should rest upon a single Minister; but in actual adminis- tration they attach great importance to the preservation of the distinction between insurance and assistance, and it is proposed to retain in the final arrangements separate administration for Social Insurance and National Assist- ance. It is true that insurance benefit arises as of right and that assistance is available only subject to proof of need and examination of means and that this is an important distinction in itself, but the Government doubt whether, if both are dealt with by the same staff, the distinction would be sufficiently preserved. Any overlapping of inspections or visits or duplication of staffs can be avoided by providing for agency arrangements between Departments as at present, e.g., a man who now exhausts his right to unemployment benefit and has to have recourse to assistance, draws the actual payments, after his case has been examined and assessed by the officers of the Assistance Board, in the same way as he would have drawn unemployment benefit. XIX—AGENCY ARRANGEMENTS FOR PAYING BENEFIT Sickness Benefit 162. The Government fully recognise the value of the services rendered by Approved Societies in the development of the National Health Insurance scheme, and they have given the most careful and sympathetic consideration to the possibility of retaining the services of the Societies in some form in the administration of the new scheme. They have not overlooked the considerations that if voluntary and State insurance were administered by the same body it would help the development of voluntary insurance and possibly secure some diminution in administrative costs. 163. On the question of the continuance of Societies as independent financial units nothing has emerged to modify the views tentatively expressed by the “Government in the debates in 1943 that there is no place for such bodies in a unified insurance scheme providing equal benefits for uniform compulsory contributions. 164. On the question of the employment of Societies as agents, the Govern- ment have examined closely the alternatives of retaining them either as responsible agents taking decisions and authorising payments, or simply as paying agents acting on directions from the Central Authority, but have found each of the alternatives open to weighty objections. Certain proposals (involving substantial modifications of the existing structure of Societies) nade by organisations of Approved Societies, have been given very careful consideration, but the Government cannot find in them any satisfactory solution of the major difficulties which are inherent in any project for indirect administration.