Orders of the Day — Contributory Pensions Bill.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am ar 15 Gorffennaf 1925.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of Sir Percy Harris Sir Percy Harris , Bethnal Green South West

This Clause, in my opinion, strikes at the very root principle of the Bill. It has been the great pride of the Government that this is a contributory scheme. The very justification for the contributions is that you get the benefit not from the State as a favour but as a right. Now we understand, according to this Clause, that that is not to be the spirit of the Bill at all, and that beneficiaries are not to get amounts as the result of their contributions as a right, but that their incomes are to be made up out of a fund under this Bill according to where they get their money under other Acts of Parliament and in other directions. That, in my opinion, strikes at the whole foundation of a contributory scheme. The Minister want to ride two horses at the same lime. He wants to have the advantages of a non-contributory scheme, under which, of course, the benefit given out of the beneficence of the community as a whole, and at the same time to have the advantages of a contributory scheme, the contributors finding the funds. If the Minister really insists on keeping this Clause, the whole justification of the contributory scheme—and I personally support it—seems to me to go. I have always felt that the great advantage of the contributory scheme is that the insured persons would feel, just as when they pay to industrial insurance companies they can come and claim their pensions as a right in a court of law, so under such a scheme they would have the same status and the same rights. Apparently, under this Clause, if the breadwinner dies from an accident, the widow has to come cap in hand to the Minister and ask that some of this fund, to which the family have subscribed by their contributions, should be handed over, not as if it were paid by an industrial company, but out of the beneficence of the State. That strikes at the whole justification of the contributory scheme, and I hope; therefore that the Minister will withdraw the Clause.