BRITISH INSURANCE COLLECTORS MAY BE NATIONALISED

Wanganui Chronicle, 24 February 1949, Page 5

BRITISH INSURANCE COLLECTORS MAY BE NATIONALISED

LONDON, Feb. 23 (Recd. 6pm).— British industrial life assurance companies specialising in door-to-door collection of premiums have decided to band together to resist any attempt by the Government to nationalise them.

As a warning of their intentions, they have submitted a memorandum to the executive of the Labour Party which is at present considering fresh nationalisation projects. The memorandum points out that industrial life assurance is already adequately supervised by the State through the Industrial Assurance Commissioner, that nationalisation might mean the cessation of door-to-door collection of premiums, that it might well mean higher premiums and the loss of bonuses, that a drop in national life assurance would be a blow to the encouragement of thrift, and that nationalisation of this praticular type of insurance would have grave repercussions on other forms of British insurance business.

Industrial life assurance companies! operating in Britain, of which the giant Prudential Assurance Combine is the largest, collects £100,000,000 annually in premiums from 10,000.000 households. They employ more than collectors.

A recent survey showed that nine out of ten wage-earning families in Britain have industrial life policies, paying an average premium of 4s 3d a week. Industrial life assurance has no connection with industrial accident insurance, or workmen’s compensation.—(Special N.Z.P.A. Correspondent).