Orders of the Day — National Insurance Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 13 November 1957.

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Photo of Miss Peggy Herbison Miss Peggy Herbison , Lanarkshire North 12:00, 13 November 1957

The hon. Member for Ilford. South (Mr. Cooper) has dealt with almost nothing of what is in the Bill, and has given us the present-day Tory patter that we have "never had it so good". After listening to his speech, one wonders what must be the reaction of the old and the sick to his attitude.

The provisions of the Bill have been very long awaited, and now that they are before us I am quite certain that the majority of our people will consider them miserably inadequate. In his speech today, the Minister spoke time again of the substantial improvements that the Bill would give to many people. Knowing the provisions of this Measure, I feel that there has never been a more farcical use of our language than his describing them as substantial improvements.

The Minister is not alone in that. Winding up the very long debate that we had yesterday, the Leader of the House said: In this Session we are going to take great strides forward in carrying forward our philosophy of championing individual rights. Again, if one puts the Bill's provisions against that statement, the only conclusion one can come to is that the statement is just sheer humbug as far as it affects the liberty of the old, the sick and the disabled. I have always believed that one of the most important aspects of liberty is a freedom from poverty and from grinding want. The old and the sick are certainly suffering from both at present, and for many thousands of them the Bill will do little to take away that poverty.

In his last few words in moving the Second Reading, the Minister said that the Bill would bring comfort and help where they were needed. I do not accept that, and I am quite certain that millions of our people will not accept it, either. The right hon. Gentleman announced last week, and the Bill provides, an increase of 10s. in various benefits. I was interested in what my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry, East (Mr. Crossman) gave as what he supposed would be the conversation with the Prime Minister on the question of a superannuation scheme. I am certain that when the Government were pushed to make increases they decided to make them as low as possible and, at the same time, they had long discussions to discover, in what devious ways they could protect the Treasury and the Surtax payers from carrying a part of any burden that might ensue from the increase.

They solved what was for them this serious problem in two ways, and both are despicable. According to the figures given by the Minister, 1,683,000 National Assistance grants are paid weekly to old couples, and to families where the breadwinner is unemployed, or sick, or industrially disabled. The grants may, indeed, cover well over 2 million people. The old-age pensioners have been given a 10s. increase by this Bill, but, of them, over 1 million are receiving National Assistance. Those people immediately lose 5s. of this increase. I do not know the exact number of those old-age pensioners who receive tobacco coupons worth 2s. 4d., but I imagine that with the disappearance of this concession there will be about a million of them, who will get the princely increase of 2s. 8d. on the present amount. How dare the Minister say that that is a substantial increase for anybody?

Yesterday, again, the Leader of the House said: …our ideals must expand in the same proportion as our scientific advance…"—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 12th November, 1957; Vol. 577, c. 906–7.] We have become very used to the platitudes of the Leader of the House, but when one examines that particular platitude it would seem, from the Bill's treatment of our old people, either that our scientific advance is going at a snail's pace, or that the ideals of the Tories are very poor and makeshift things. I am sure that everyone knows that our old people's troubles are due to the lack of any ideals or decent philosophy on the part of the present Government.

The Government's second solution to the problem was the raising of the contributions—again, in particular, to relieve the Surtax payers. In giving his financial explanation today, the Minister obviously showed what my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry, East proved so clearly in his excellent speech: that if we try to continue with the present fixed-rate contribution and fixed-rate pension there will be no hope in the future for the old people having any decent standard of living at all. If the Minister examines his own speech he will find that that is the only conclusion to which he can come. I am convinced that either this Government—if they last long enough—or certainly a Labour Government, will get away from the flat-rate contribution and introduce a graded contribution with a graded pension.

The hon. Member for Ilford, South does not seem to know how many of our people work and live. He does not seem to have any knowledge of agricultural workers. He does not seem to know that those doing the ordinary labouring, the low-paid wages earners with families, will find this extra 2s. a quite intolerable extra burden on them. And for the young in that category it is, as has been pointed out earlier from this side, an extra contribution in order to give to our present old-age pensioners a completely inadequate pension—and also a completely inadequate pension for these young people in the future—although the Government's own actuaries have shown very clearly indeed that the young people in our community, even the lowest-paid wage earners among them, will pay more than actuarially they should for their own pensions in, say, forty years' time.

I want to touch on what is not in the Bill. A very long fight was put up by hon. Friends on this side of the House to try to bring those men and women who receive benefits under the old compensation Acts up to the same rate as those in receipt of Industrial Injuries benefit. I myself introduced a Private Member's Bill to cover both the partially and the totally disabled under the old compensation Acts. Friday after Friday it was turned down by a Tory Member at the instigation of the Minister. Last year, however, the Minister finally brought in a Bill that took care of the totally disabled and, by giving them an increase of 17s. 6d., brought them up to the same rate as those in receipt of benefit under the Industrial Injuries Act.

Surely, when the Government decided at that time that it was only justice to give to those people that increase, the Government ought to have had in this Bill provision for raising those old compensation cases to the new level. If the Minister does not bring in the old compensation cases when the Bill is in Committee, the men and women in those old cases will be 25s. a week worse off than those who are receiving Industrial Injuries benefit.

I ask the Minister to consider this matter between now and Committee, and, if he decides that it is just to bring them in, that he will so phrase his legislation that if there is an increase in Industrial Injuries benefit, those who receive benefit under the old compensation Acts will be able to get such increases. If he does not, we on this side will put down an Amendment.

Then there are those who get pneumoconiosis benefits—all time-barred cases. They are getting even less than many who are receiving benefit under the old compensation Acts. They benefited under the 1956 Act, but under this Bill there is no benefit for them. I beg the Minister to include in the Bill a provision that will cover these people.

My last point relates to the non-contributory pension. This was raised to 26s. in 1946, but there has not been a single penny increase since. Many of these people are very badly off indeed. If 26s. was considered the correct amount in 1946, according to the Minister's own figures, given in an Answer on Monday, the figure would now be about 42s. 4d. Surely the Minister cannot believe that to give them the 2s. 4d., which is what they will lose from the tobacco token, will be sufficient. This is a poor Bill. It is completely inadequate and a great disappointment to our old people.