National Insurance Act 1913
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1913 c. 37 |
| Year | 1913 |
National Insurance Act, 1913
(3 & 4 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 37.
All Act to amend Parts I. and III. of the National Insurance Act, 1911.
[15th August 1913]
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:
1 Provision of additional money by Parliament.
(1) In addition to the moneys which under Part I. of the National Insurance Act, 1911 (in this Act referred to as the ‘principal Act’), are required to be contributed out of moneys provided by Parliament towards defraying the cost of any of the benefits conferred by Part I. of that Act or the expenses of administration of any of those benefits or otherwise for the purposes of that Act, there shall be contributed out of moneys provided by Parliament towards such costs expenses and purposes, such additional sums as Parliament may from time to time determine, and the provisions of the principal Act as to the manner in which the cost of benefits and the expenses of administration are to be defrayed shall be construed as applying only to the balance of such cost and expenses after such additional sums have been applied for the purposes for which they have been provided.
(2) Any additional sums so contributed for the purpose of medical benefit shall be applicable towards the payment of medical attendance and treatment of members of societies who are not insured persons mentioned in paragraph (e of section fifteen of the principal Act as amended by this Act in like manner and to the like extent as if such medical attendance and treatment were medical benefit.
2 Extensions of time for taking advantage of Act.
(1) If a person not having been previously insured becomes an employed contributor before the thirteenth day of October nineteen hundred and thirteen, the rate of sickness benefit to which he is entitled shall not be reduced by reason only that he did not become an employed contributor within one year after the commencement of the principal Act, notwithstanding that at the time of becoming an employed contributor he is of the age of seventeen or upwards, and accordingly subsection (4) of section nine, and subsection (5) of section fifty-five, of the principal Act shall have effect, and shall be deemed always to have had effect, as if ‘sixty-five weeks’ were therein substituted for ‘one year.’
(2) The period within which a person may enter into insurance as a voluntary contributor at the rate referred to in subsection (1) of section five of the principal Act shall be extended to the twelfth day of October nineteen hundred and thirteen, and accordingly proviso (a ) to subsection (1) of section five and subsection (3) of section fifty-five of the principal Act shall have effect, and shall be deemed always to have had effect, as if ‘sixty-five weeks’ were therein substituted for ‘six months.’
3 Abolition of reduction of benefits in certain cases.
(1) The rate of sickness benefit shall not be reduced in the case of an insured person who became an employed contributor within one year after the commencement of the principal Act by reason that at the date of so becoming an employed contributor he was of the age of fifty years or upwards, and accordingly subsection (3) of section nine and Table C in Part I. of the Fourth Schedule to the principal Act shall be repealed.
(2) Part I. of the principal Act shall apply to persons who at the commencement of the principal Act were of the age of sixty-five or upwards and under the age of seventy, and to persons who have since the commencement of the principal Act attained or may hereafter attain the age of sixty-five in like manner as it applies to other persons, and accordingly subsection (4) of section one, paragraph (a ) of subsection (4) of section four, and section forty-nine of the principal Act shall be repealed:
Provided that a person who is of the age of sixty-five or upwards at the time of entering into insurance shall not be entitled to medial benefit after he attains the age of seventy, unless the number of weekly contributions paid by or in respect of him exceeds twenty-six.
(3) The Insurance Commissioners may make such regulations as they may consider necessary for providing, in the case of any such classes as aforesaid, for the transition from the provisions of the principal Act affecting them to the provisions of that Act as amended by this section.
4 Insured persons.
4. Paragraph (b ) of subsection (3) of section one of the principal Act shall have effect as if there were added thereto ‘or, being of the age of sixty or upwards, show to the satisfaction of the Insurance Commissioners that they have ceased to be insurable as employed contributors,’ and, where any persons who by virtue of this section are entitled to become voluntary contributors become such contributors, the rate of contribution payable by them shall continue to be the employed rate.
5 Exemptions.
5. After paragraph (b ) of subsection (1) of section two of the principal Act which relates to exemptions, the following paragraph shall be added:—
‘(c ) Ordinarily and mainly dependent for his livelihood on the earnings derived by him from an occupation which is not employment within the meaning of this Part of this Act.’
6 Employment within meaning of principal Acts.
6. There shall be added to Part I. of the First Schedule to the principal Act, which specifies the classes of employment which is employment within Part I. of the principal Act, the following paragraph:—
7 Arrears of contributions.
(1) Where an employed contributor who is a member of an approved society pays to the society such part of any arrears which have accrued due by or in respect of him during any period of unemployment as would have been payable otherwise than by the employer had he continued in employment, the part which would have been so payable by the employer shall be excused, and the amount of the member's arrears shall be reduced accordingly.
For the purpose of calculating the parts which would have been payable by the employer and otherwise than by an employer had an employed contributor continued in employment, the rate of his remuneration shall be deemed to exceed two shillings and sixpence a working day, unless he proves to the satisfaction of the society that his usual rate of remuneration was two shillings and sixpence a working day or less, in which case his rate of remuneration shall be deemed to be such usual rate.
(2) Where in any year a society, or, in the case of a society with branches, a branch of a society, proves to the satisfaction of the Insurance Commissioners that the total number of weekly contributions which accrued due as arrears during the preceding year in respect of all its members who were employed contributors exceeded the standard number (that is to say, three weekly contributions for every such member) then, for the purpose of recouping to the society the loss it will suffer, there shall be paid to the society, or to the society on behalf of the branch, as the case may be, out of the sums retained by the Insurance Commissioners for discharging their liabilities in respect of reserve values, the prescribed amount for every week by which the standard was so exceeded, but not exceeding the total amount so excused as aforesaid:
Provided that, if the aggregate amount so payable in any year exceeds one hundred thousand pounds, the excess shall be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament.
(3) The Insurance Commissioners may make regulations for carrying this section into effect.
8 Reduction, &c., of benefits on account of arrears.
8. Subject to the provisions of subsection (4) of section ten of the principal Act, insured persons who are in arrear shall be liable to such reduction, postponement or suspension of benefits as may be prescribed so, however, that any such reduction, postponement or suspension of benefit shall be approximately equivalent to the value of the loss occasioned by the failure to pay the contributions in arrear, and the provisions of the principal Act regulating the reduction, postponement and suspension of benefits on account of arrears shall cease to have effect, and the regulations of the Insurance Commissioners may prescribe the time within which, and the conditions under which, arrears may be paid up.
9 Benefits of exempted persons.
(1) Regulations made by the Insurance Commissioners under subsection (4) of section four of the principal Act shall provide for applying the contributions paid in respect of persons who hold certificates of exemption in providing medical benefit and sanatorium benefit for such persons and the cost of the administration of such benefits, and such persons shall, if they fulfil such conditions as may be imposed by those regulations, become entitled to medical benefit and sanatorium benefit as if they were members of...
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