Clause 24. — (Additional Provision for Refunds of, and Other Provisions as to, Selective Employment Tax.)

Part of Orders of the Day — FINANCE (No. 2) BILL – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 8 June 1967.

Alert me about debates like this

What are the Government saving by this method of dealing with the disabled? Many of these men are in receipt of unemployment benefit. In South Wales the Exchequer is paying out unemployment benefit in respect of thousands of men. I do not know whether the Treasury Bench is fully conversant with the operation of disablement benefit. Under the Industrial Injuries Act, men seriously disabled by injury are entitled to a hardship allowance, which is based on the difference between their pre-accident wages and what they are able to earn on light work. Many of these men, particularly in the mining industry, have taken light jobs and have earned, say, £12 a week. Their pre-accident wages might have been £15. Their hardship allowance is based on the difference between £12 and £15 a week. When pits are closed, these men become unemployed and they seek work elsewhere. If they are in receipt of the hardship allowance, they are assumed to be able to earn what they were receiving when they were in work. Although they are out of work, they are assumed to earn money. This places an extra hardship on them under the Industrial Injuries Act. Problems such as these bedevil many disabled men in the South Wales coalfield.