National Health Insurance, Contributory Pensions and Workmen's Compensation Act 1941
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1941 c. 39 |
| Year | 1941 |
National Health Insurance, Contributory Pensions and Workmen's Compensation Act, 1941.
(4 & 5 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 39.
An Act to increase the rates of sickness and disablement benefit and the rates of contribution payable under the Acts relating to National Health Insurance, to extend the said Acts to persons employed otherwise than by way of manual labour at a rate of remuneration exceeding two hundred and fifty pounds a year, and in connection therewith to amend the Acts relating to widows', orphans' and old age contributory pensions and certain other enactments; to enable any of the Acts aforesaid to be adapted by regulations to wartime conditions; and to amend paragraph (a ) of subsection (2) of section three of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1925.
[7th August 1941]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I.
National Health Insurance and Contributory Pensions.
1 Increase of rates of sickness and disablement benefit.
(1) Each of the rates of benefit specified in section forty-four of the Insurance Act (which relates to the rates of sickness and disablement benefit) shall be increased by three shillings a week and accordingly—
(a ) the said section shall have effect as set out in Part I of the First Schedule to this Act; and
(b ) the provisions of the enactments mentioned in Part II of the said Schedule, being provisions relating to benefit under the Insurance Act, shall be adjusted in the manner provided in that Part of that Schedule.
(2) Where the Minister is satisfied as regards any scheme which has been confirmed under section fifty-six of the Insurance Act that, by reason of the increase in the rates of benefit for which provision is made by this section, the value of the benefits conferred by the scheme is no longer equivalent to the value of the benefits for which they are substituted, the Minister may by order revoke the scheme.
(3) The Minister may make regulations under the Insurance Act as respects the continuance and cancellation of certificates granted under paragraph (b ), (c ) or (d ) of Part II of the First Schedule to that Act (which except certain employments where the Minister certifies that the terms thereof are such as to secure provision in respect of sickness and disablement on the whole not less favourable than benefits conferred by the Act), in cases where by reason of the increase in the rates of benefit for which provision is made by this section, the terms of the employment no longer in his opinion comply with the requirements of the paragraph under which the certificate was issued.
2 Increase of rates of contribution.
2. The employed rate of contributions payable under the Insurance Act shall be increased by twopence a week, and the rate of the contributions payable by employed contributors and the rate of the contributions payable by their employers shall be increased in each case by one penny a week; and accordingly—
3 Increase of remuneration limit.
(1) The following provisions of the Insurance Act shall have effect as if for the words ‘two hundred and fifty pounds’ in each place where they occur, there were substituted the words ‘four hundred and twenty pounds’ namely—
(a ) paragraph (k ) of Part II of the First Schedule (which includes among excepted employments employment otherwise than by way of manual labour at a rate of remuneration exceeding two hundred and fifty pounds a year);
(b ) subsection (2) of section thirty-four (which provides that a voluntary contributor whose total income exceeds two hundred and fifty pounds a year shall not be entitled to medical benefit);
(c ) proviso (b ) to subsection (3) of section thirty-four (which requires an exempt person whose total income exceeds two hundred and fifty pounds a year to make his own arrangements for receiving medical treatment and attendance).
(2) In the following provisions of the Pensions Act (which are related to the said paragraph (k ) of Part II of the First Schedule to the Insurance Act), namely subsections (4) and (5) of section seventeen and the Second Schedule, for the words ‘two hundred and fifty pounds a year’ in each place where they occur there shall be substituted the words ‘the amount of the health insurance limit for non-manual workers’, and for the purpose of the said provisions the expression ‘the amount of the health insurance limit for non-manual workers’ shall mean—
(a ) in the application of the said provisions to any period before the thirtieth day of June, nineteen hundred and nineteen, one hundred and sixty pounds a year;
(b ) in the application of the said provisions to any period after the twenty-ninth day of June, nineteen hundred and nineteen and before the fifth day of January, nineteen hundred and forty-two, two hundred and fifty pounds a year; and
(c ) in the application of the said provisions to any period after the fourth day of January, nineteen hundred and forty-two, four hundred and twenty pounds a year.
(3) If any question arises under sub-paragraph (a ) of paragraph 1 of the Fourth Schedule to the Pensions Act (which relates to persons who died before the fourth day of January, nineteen hundred and twenty-six) whether contributions would have been payable under that Act if that Act had been in force before that date, that question shall be determined as if for the words ‘four hundred and twenty pounds’, wherever they occur in the said paragraph (k ) of Part II of the First Schedule to the Insurance Act as amended by this Act, there were substituted—
(a ) in a case where the question arises as respects a period before the thirtieth day of June, nineteen hundred and nineteen, the words ‘one hundred and sixty pounds’; and
(b ) in a case where the question arises with respect to a subsequent period, the words ‘two hundred and fifty pounds’.
(4) Where—
(a ) a free or extended insurance period to which any person is entitled by virtue of section six or section seven of the Insurance Act (whether as originally enacted or as applied by regulations made under any provision of the Insurance Acts) ends on the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and forty-one; and
(b ) on any of the four days beginning with the first day of January, nineteen hundred and forty-two, that person is not employed within the meaning of the Insurance Act, but would have been so employed if paragraph (a ) of subsection (1) of this section had then been in force;
the free or extended insurance period, as the case may be, shall be extended so as to expire with the fifth day of January, nineteen hundred and forty-two.
(5) Nothing in paragraph (a ) of subsection (1) of this section shall affect the definition of the expression ‘officer’ contained in subsection (1) of section forty of the Local Government Superannuation Act, 1937 , or in subsection (1) of section thirty-four of the Local Government Superannuation (Scotland) Act, 1937 ; and accordingly the reference in the said definition to the Insurance Act shall continue to be construed as if the said paragraph (a ) had not been enacted.
4 Increased cost of medical benefit and administration expenses.
(1) The maximum yearly rate of the sum which, under subsection (2) of section one hundred and eighteen of the Insurance Act may be applied for the purpose of meeting the cost of medical benefit, the administration expenses of insurance committees, and expenses incurred by the Minister, shall be fourteen shillings and sixpence (instead of thirteen shillings) per year in respect of each of the total number (calculated in the prescribed manner) of the persons who are entitled to medical benefit as being or having been members of an approved society.
(2) So much of the said subsection (2) as limits the sums payable to insurance committees on account of their administration expenses to sixpence in respect of each of the total number aforesaid, and limits the sums payable to the Minister on account of his expenses to threepence in respect of each of that number, shall cease to have effect, and the sums so payable shall not exceed such sums as may be prescribed.
(3) This section shall come into operation on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and forty-two.
5 Increased provision for reserve values.
5. Section one hundred and forty-four of the Insurance Act (which requires the Minister to retain certain sums out of weekly contributions paid and to apportion a part thereof among approved societies in respect of reserve values) shall have effect subject to the following amendments:—
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