INSURANCE PLAN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 75, 26 September 1944, Page 6

INSURANCE PLAN

SOCIAL SECURITY

BRITISH -.GOVERNMENT POLICY i Rec. 11.20 a.m. - RUGBY,, Sept. 25, A White Paper setting out the Government's policy, on social insurance has been issuetl. The Government's social insurance plan is part of a comprehensive economic policy ;foi* the years of peace and reconstruction. It has two sides, the first dealing with the production of wealth to enable the nation as a whole to earn the best possible living in the most efficient ways, and the second making provision for those in want through illness, unemployment, injury .at work, ,or other chances and changes of life. -/The scheme provides for everybody, without exception. . The population has been classified—not according to earnings, but. according to every way of life and their, requirements—into six groups, which differ in respect of the benefits they need and the contributions they must, make to receive them. These . six classes are:—Class 1, employees; class 2, others.earning money; class 3, housewives; class ,4, other persons of working age . not' earning money; class 5, children; and class, 6, persons above working age who have retired. ..,.■■:. .There will be a single weekly contribution for each contributor, paid by one stamp on an insurance card. This will cover all the benefits available in the contributor's class of insurance. PAYMENTS AND BENEFITS. The weekly contribution under class 1 will be for men of 18 or over; 3s 10d, and employers 3s Id. The contribution in class 2 will be '4s 2d for men and 3s 6d for women, and in class 4 3s 4d for men and 2s 8d for women. The benefits available to each class of contributor are:—Classes 1, 2, and 4, a maternity grant, maternity benefit, or attendance allowance, retirement pensions, widow's benefit, guardian's benefit, widow's pension, and destitution grant. , In addition, in class 1 there are sickness benefits and invalidity benefits, unemployed benefits, and indus-. trial injury benefits. In class 2 there will,be. a sickness benefit after the first four weeks o| sickness, and ■invalidity benefit. Family allowances and health services will be available to all. Regarding family allowances, there wik be services in kind. School meals and a milk service wilL be free. There will also be a cash allowance of 5s a week for each'child in the family except the first, paid, by the State from' the proceeds of the taxes. -The standard rates of unemployment and sickness benefit will-.be 40s .for a "married couple, 24sfor a single man or woman, and 5s for, the eldest child. Sickness benefit Wl!y?st for three years,. and then invalidity benefit of 35s and 20s will be substituted. UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT. Unemployment benefit lasts for 30 weeks—a little longer for those with a good employment record. Sixteen shillings will be paid in addition to the single rate of unemployment and sickness benefit to anyone who maintains an invalid person's widowed mother adult sister, or daughter, or to a housekeeper looking after dependent children. . The standard retirement pension will be 35s for a man.and his wife, 20s for a single person,, and will be payable when the man retires at 65, even if the wife is under 60, unless she is working Those who go on working do not draw a pension, but when they retire their pension is increased by 2s for the man and his wife and Is for a single person for-every year worked after the retiring age. Besides the maternity grants arrangements have: also been made for benefits for married women insured Own riShtand for widows and io7 c he + ,Gover^ ment estimates that in 194 i B%& wIU be. 340,000 pensioners and 21,000,000 contributors, and in 1965 530,000 pensioners and 21,000 000 contributors. STATE INCOME AND OUTGOINGS. There will be: a Ministry of Social Insurance and Family' Allowances. lhe estimated income of the new scheme in 1945 would be £283,000,000 from contributions and £352,000,000 from the Exchequer and local rates. The estimated income of the present schemes in 1945 , will be £136,000,000 in contributions and £276,000,000 from local rates. The estimated expenditure of the new scheme in 1945 will be £650,000,000. The estimated expenditure on the present schemes in 1945 will be £411-,000,000. The White Paper expresses gratitude to Sir William Beveridge for his original plan, and states that the main tribute to him is. the embodiment of so much of his plan in the proposals set out above.

Lord Woolton, speaking' of the new scheme, said that the proposals for social insurance are indications of the Government's determination to wage war against poverty in time of peace.—B.O.W.