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(1) The persons who should be entitled to maintenance allowances should include — (a) Persons belonging to occupational groups, or residing in districts to which social insurance does not yet apply, or has not yet applied for as long as the qualifying period for basic invalidity, old age or survivors' benefits, as the case may be, and the widows and dependent children of such persons ; and (b) Persons who are already invalids at the time when they would normally enter insurance. ('2) Maintenance allowances should be sufficient for full, long-term maintenance ; they should vary with the current cost of living, and may vary as between urban and rural areas. (3) Maintenance allowances should be paid at the full rate to persons whose other income does not exceed a prescribed level and at reduced rates in other cases. (4) The provisions of the present Recommendation defining the contingencies in which invalidity, old-age and survivors' benefits should be paid should be applied, in so far as they are relevant, to maintenance allowances. C. General Assistance 30. Appropriate allowances in cash or partly in cash and partly in kind should be provided for all persons who are in want and do not require internment for corrective care. (1) The range of cases in which the amount of the allowance is entirely discretionary should be gradually narrowed as the result of the improved classification of cases of want, and the establishment of budgets corresponding to the cost of maintenance in short-term and long-term indigency. (2) The grant of allowance may be subject to compliance by the recipient with directions given by the authorities administering medical or employment services in order that the assistance may yield its greatest constructive effect. The foregoing is the authentic text of the Recommendation duly adopted by the General Conference of the International Labour Organization during its Twenty-sixth Session which was held at Philadelphia and declared closed the 12th day of May 1944. In faith whereof we have appended our signatures, this seventeenth day of May 1944. The President of the Conference. W. Nash. The Acting Director of the International Labour Office. Edward J. Phelan. INTERNATIONAL LABOUR CONFERENCE Recommendation [No. 68] concerning Income Security and Medical Care for Persons discharged from the Armed Forces and Assimilated Services and from War Employment The General Conference of the International Labour Organization— Having been convened at Philadelphia by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office, and having mot in its Twenty-sixth Session on 20 April 1944, and Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to income security and medical care for persons discharged from the armed forces and assimilated services and from war employment, which is included in the third item on the agenda of the Session, and Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a Recommendation, adopts, this twelfth day of May, of the year one thousand nine hundred and forty-four, the following Recommendation which may be cited as the Social Security (Armed Forces) Recommendation, 1944 : — Whereas persons discharged from the armed forces and assimilated services have been obliged to interrupt their careers and will be faced with initial expenditure in re-establishing themselves in civil life; and Whereas persons discharged from the armed forces or assimilated services or from waremployment may in certain cases remain unemployed for a time before obtaining suitable employment; and Whereas it is undesirable that persons discharged from the armed forces and assimilated services should find themselves at a disadvantage in respect of pension insurance as compared with persons who have remained in civil employment, and the Invalidity, Old-Age and Survivors' Insurance Recommendation, 1933, while providing for the maintenance of the rights under pension insurance schemes of persons engaged in military service who were insured before beginning such service, does not provide for the attribution of any rights under such schemes to persons not insured before entering military service ; and Whereas it is desirable that persons discharged from the armed forces and assimilated services should be protected by insurance in respect of sickness occurring between their discharge and their re-establishment in civil life by entry into insurable employment or otherwise ; and Whereas it is necessary to make equitable provision in regard to these matters, without prejudice to the satisfaction of other essential needs, such as those of military and civilian war victims, which ftiust also be a charge on the national income : The Conference recommends the Members of the Organization to apply the following principles and to communicate information to the International Labour Office, as requested by the Governing Body, concerning the measures taken to give effect to those principles : I. Mustering-out Grant 1. Persons discharged from the armed forces and assimilated services should, except in cases in which they have, in virtue of national laws or regulations, continued to receive a substantial part of their remuneration, receive on their discharge a special grant, which may be related to their length of service and should be paid in the form of a lump sum, in the form of periodical payments, or partly in the form of a lump sum and partly in the form of periodical payments.

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