Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/534

Rh in benefits. They proposed that, in fatal cases, the benefits for total dependents should be on the following scale:—

(1) Where a widow is left, £250.

(2) Where the person killed leaves a child or children, a weekly allowance of 10s. for the first, 7s. 6d. for the second, and 6s. for every other child. The allowances were to be provided by the payment by the employer into a Central Fund of £500 in every case of a workman dying and leaving a child or children under 15 years of age.

(3) Where other dependents are left, in addition to the benefits mentioned above, a further sum of £500, or where dependents are left, not including widow or children, £250.

The provision for investing money for the children was new. The committee proposed that, in the case of partial dependents, a sum representing the value of the late workman's contributions to the support of the partial dependents should be payable, with a maximum of £250. By the term “support” was meant the provision of the ordinary necessaries of life suitable for persons in their position.

Originally the maximum benefit for total disablement was £1 a week. This sum was raised after Sept. 1917, by two increments, to 35s. a week. The committee proposed that the total payment should be 66⅔% of the average weekly earnings, with a maximum of £3. Since the cash value of an annuity of £3 a week for a man aged 30 might represent £1,500, the liability of employers would become very considerable, and it was this fact evidently which decided the committee to recommend compulsory insurance.

The arrangements for instituting benefits under the Act of 1906 provided that no compensation should be payable for incapacity lasting one week or less; for incapacity lasting more than one but less than two weeks compensation was payable, but only for the days after the first week; for incapacity lasting two weeks or more compensation was payable from the beginning of the incapacity. The committee proposed in future a waiting period of only three days, with no dating back.

Another provision was that any medical and surgical aid necessary, in addition to the medical treatment already available under the National Health Insurance Acts, should be secured for the injured workmen at the cost of the employer under a comprehensive scheme to be worked out by the proposed Commissioner in coöperation with the Ministry of Health.

It was proposed that county court registrars should be appointed to undertake the following duties under the supervision of the registrar:—

(a) To give information, free of expense, to injured workmen or their dependents about the benefits provided by the Act and the necessary procedure to protect their rights.

(b) To act as mediators between the employer and the injured workman or his dependents on the request of the parties.

(c) To be empowered, if both parties agreed, in the event of a dispute as to the workman's condition, to refer the matter to the medical referee, whose certificate should be final.

Power, it was recommended, should be given to the proposed Commissioner to institute inquiries into the practicability of a system of discounts from normal rates in consideration of approved safety devices or provisions, and by agreement with insurance companies and mutual associations to prescribe a practical scheme. The committee was in favour of a substantial increase in the amount of compensation to which priority may be given in the distribution of the assets of a bankrupt employer, and recommended that the amount should be fixed at the full amount of the claim.

The terms of the agreement concluded between the departmental committee on workmen's compensation and the Accident Offices' Association was the subject of some criticism in financial circles. The provision that commission, expenses and profit, if any, should not exceed 30% of the premiums was criticised especially, since it was known that during the previous eight years the average commission paid to agents by a large number of offices had been about 12%, the expenses of management had been about 19%, and the profit about 15%, making a total of about 46%. On the insurance side, however, it was recognized that, even if no committee had been appointed, the companies would have revised their rates of premium in consequence of the favourable effect on the business of the rise in wages during the war period. It was reasoned that the increased benefits recommended by the committee would certainly involve increased rates of premium. Evidently the insurance companies wished to make it quite clear that they had no desire to profit unduly from such developments, and they offered to conduct the business on terms which they hoped would not result in actual loss to them. There was a provision in the agreement that at the end of three yearly periods the rates should be reviewed, so that any deficiency there might be could be taken into account in fixing the premiums for the next triennial period. The insurance companies could well point out that any Government scheme to be inaugurated could not work the system on such favourable terms, and that insurance companies were in a position to do so only because of the efficient organizations which were already in existence.

Legislation was required to give effect to the proposals. This, the Government announced, it would introduce. The time of the Government throughout the first six months of 1921 was, however, much preoccupied with such matters as the coal stoppage, and the necessary legislation was still awaited.

New Extensions of Insurance.—In recent years there has been a great extension in practice of the insurance principle. In some directions this progress received a setback on the outbreak of war, while hostilities gave it an impetus in other directions. As an instance of the development of the principle there may be cited insurance against the risks of bombardment of persons and property in the United Kingdom by the enemy from the sea and air. Underwriters were asked very early in the war to cover such risks. Many insurance companies did not see their way to undertake the business, alleging that they had no data on which to work. But some underwriters and insurance companies did undertake the business and wrote a very large amount of it, to the comfort of the assured and, as events proved, to their own profit. Insurances were issued against the risks of damage to, or death of, individuals and against the risk of damage to property. The demand for insurance of this kind grew to very large proportions, and the market was hardly large enough to deal with the whole of it. Thereupon, with the assistance of leading underwriters, a Government scheme was instituted, use being made of the organizations of all the great insurance companies, which acted as agents for the Government in this matter.

The general insurance department of a composite company includes miscellaneous forms of insurance. Among the chief of these is motor-car insurance. During the war comparatively little was done in this form of business. Many private cars were garaged at specially reduced rates of insurance. In 1919 and 1920, when these cars came into use again, the insurance experience was very unsatisfactory. Costs of repairs were on a high scale, and there was an epidemic of thefts. Profits earned from the business in 1919 were small. For 1920 some of the leading insurance companies reported substantial losses. Early in 1921 rates of premium were advanced.

Unfavourable results also followed the transaction of burglary insurance during the two years immediately following the Armistice. This was due to a general epidemic of lawlessness which pervaded Great Britain, and was seen in the wholesale robberies of goods in course of transit. While the large insurance companies are always ready to transact the main forms of insurance, great credit should be given to the underwriters at Lloyd's, who are willing to consider the issue of policies covering every conceivable risk against which the public may legitimately expect to be insured. In this way insurances are effected against the risks of strikes and their effects, against the risks of changes in taxation imposed in budgets and of the special risks of aviation. Risks of the most diverse character are constantly offered, and those underwriters who have been prepared to accept them are known to have secured satisfactory financial results. Before the war efforts of underwriters were concentrated on forming an Aviation Insurance Association, the idea being that one office should be maintained where risks should be