Orders of the Day — Contributorypensionsbill.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 22 July 1925.

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Photo of Miss Ellen Wilkinson Miss Ellen Wilkinson , Middlesbrough East

I beg to second the Amendment.

It is not very often realised that many employed persons hardly ever see their insurance cards. The cards are dealt with in bulk, especially in the case of large factories. The money is deducted compulsorily from their wages, the whole of the cards are dealt with in the office, and they are sent in bulk to the various societies. The employé naturally is entitled to assume that the employer has done his share. The State does not place on the employé the responsibility in this case. The employer is made the collecting agency for the State. Therefore, if the State's own agent defaults, the loss should not fall on the employé who has done his share. Of course it is open to the State to make this a civil debt, and the resources of the State, which are infinitely more powerful than those of the employé, can be used to recover the money, if the employer becomes bankrupt, by making the debt a charge upon his assets. With all that machinery at the disposal of the State it is surely only fair that the employé or the widow and her children should be paid during such time as the State is making arrangements to settle with the employer. You might have the case of a helpless widow with children around her, knowing nothing of the law. knowing only that she expected her benefit and is not getting it. I hope that the State will stand in loco parentis —I do not know the Latin for husband— to a woman, and collect the debt for her and see that she gets her benefit?