Orders of the Day — National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 10 October 1945.

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Photo of Miss Alice Bacon Miss Alice Bacon , Leeds North East 12:00, 10 October 1945

I am particularly pleased to make my maiden speech in this House on the Industrial Injuries Bill, for all my life I have watched at first hand the working and practice of the inhuman and niggardly Workmen's Compensation Acts. I have always lived among miners and my home has always been one to which men have come with their difficulties and troubles, particularly in regard to accidents. When I was only 12 years old I went down the mine into its inner workings and almost terrifying darkness, but as every miner's wife and mother knows, there is even a darker side to the picture when the man who went out so strong and so well comes home in an ambulance or does not return home at all. Among the mining population workmen's compensation plays a very great part and in mining towns and villages there is scarcely an adult man who has not at some time or another been subject to workmen's compensation. This has always been a time to be dreaded not only because of the suffering which accidents have always brought, but because of the poverty which has accompanied them. Even to-day there are many people in this country who do not realise what the old Compensation Acts mean. Until recent years the maximum amount per week, no matter what the size of the family, was only 30s. but it was the exception rather than the rule for this money to reach 30s. per week. I have known men say, when in receipt of compensation, "The doctor says I am fit for light work. I have been to my employer and he says there is no light work for me." And so the already inadequate sum was reduced without the means of earning more to supplement it.

My right hon. Friend the Minister has already indicated what happens in regard to lump sums as death benefits, but very often too, men have been persuaded to take lump sums in lieu of weekly payments. I have known of representatives of insurance companies in the past visiting the homes of men and trying to put before the wives in glowing terms that they would advise perhaps £50, and for this niggardly sum the workmen would be induced to give up all their future payments. We have seen what happened in the courts of law on this question. We have seen that, never before have we had compensation, for injury but only for loss of working capacity. This Bill may not be perfect, but I welcome it because it sweeps away these evils.

The right hon. Gentleman the Member for North Leeds (Mr. Peake) has said that this Bill is not Socialism. There may be differences of opinion about that, but there is one thing that it does—it removes some of the effects of capitalism. I want to leave the main provisions of this Bill to my friends who more directly represent industry and confine my remarks to two things about which I feel very strongly. One has already been mentioned by the Minister, and is in regard to past cases, particularly the pre-1924 cases. There may be practical difficulties about bringing them into the scheme because of the fact that responsibility lies on the previous employer or insurance company, but it is going to be very hard on people who receive lasting injuries perhaps a few days before the date of the operation of this Bill—those people who would always be able to say, "Had my accident only happened a few days later, I should be getting more and better benefit." It is also very hard on the long-standing cases who suffered so much under previous Workmen's Compensation Acts.

I have in mind one case in particular of a man who had a serious spinal injury in 1911. At that time he was a young man of 32, with a wife and two children, and, for 8½ years he received only 17s. 10d. in workmen's compensation. Later on he received additions which brought him up to £1 11s. 2d., but because his accident happened before 1924, he has not been eligible for any of the war-time grants. In our legislation there are always these left-overs, and, again, I am very much afraid that there are going to be people left outside in the queue and in the cold when the shop door is shut and the despairing notice "Closed" is put on the door. Are these people going to be doomed irrevocably to spend their lives at the wrong end of the queue? I hope not, and I hope we shall get some arrangement to see that it is not so.

I know the Bill goes part of the way and gives an addition of 20s. to those with permanent incapacity. There is no mention of dependants in this, and some of these people will receive much less. The case which I have just quoted will, with the addition of that 20s., receive 51s., whereas, under the new Act, he would have been receiving 76s. I hope it will be possible to do something about this, and I would ask the Minister of National Insurance to see if it is not possible to raise the amount and so, perhaps, make these people receive the same as they would receive if they came under this new Act.

I particularly welcome Clause 72 which gives the Minister power to make arrange- ments to secure maintenance, free of charge or at a reduced rate, of equipment and appliances for any person who, by reason of loss of limb, is in need of them. This is a measure which is long overdue, and I hope that a generous and wide interpretation will be given to this Bill.

The way in which our injured workmen have been subjected to inquisition and charity in the past is simply disgraceful. When injured workpeople are in hospital and are needing these appliances the hospital almoners have to spend their time in approaching the approved societies, the sick lodge, or the welfare scheme, and have to "means test" the patient in order to meet the cost. I know that, of late years, assistance has been provided by the Queen Mary Hospital at Roehampton, but here again a charge has to be met in the same way. Whatever the source this money comes from, the patient has always been painfully made aware of it. I hope that, in this Clause, the term "reduced rate" does not mean that part of the money has again to be found by these methods.

I hope, too, that the equipment and appliances will include such things as invalid chairs and spinal carriages. The self-propelled ones cost £50, and the motor ones cost £100, which is quite beyond the capacity of any injured workman to pay. In the past they have been provided by charity concerts, collections and all sorts of other ways. There are many other spinal cases, in which men are completely paralysed in the lower part of the body, and which need special beds with special rests. It is the exception rather than the rule for these people to be adequately looked after once they leave hospital, but I hope that the interpretation of this Clause will mean that these people will receive the equipment which they need. Very often, if the money is available, much mental anguish can be avoided.

I have particularly in mind cases of facial injuries. I know a man who met with an accident so bad that one eye and the surrounding parts of his face were completely torn away. I know these details are not very pleasant, but these things are happening every day in the coalfields. This man happened to belong to a local fund, which was able to send him to London, and it was not science which came to the rescue, but art, and the man was fitted with a mask, complete with artificial eye, which nobody could detect. It made all the difference to that man between walking among ordinary people and riding on buses and trams or slipping away from the world with people turning away from him in revulsion. I hope again that this class of case will receive equipment and appliances of that kind. We must allow nobody who is physically maimed also to become mentally maimed because of the lack of means.

I hope this Bill is going to be administered in a human manner, and that we shall not only provide the sustenance but restore these unfortunate people to normality. We must remember that this Bill is to deal with the ill, the crippled, and, probably, the depressed, and that, for these people, an ounce of warm humanity is worth a ton of cold legality.