Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am ar 15 Gorffennaf 1925.
Mr John Tinker
, Leigh
I want to get away from the legal point, and to speak as a layman I think this particular Clause was very ill-drawn. I worked out the figures, and I found a person would be worse off by accepting the position under the widows and orphans' pension. Later on I found that those in charge of the Bill had discovered it also, with the result that they had put down an Amendment to meet the particular point. They made a mistake at first in drawing up the Clause. First of all, as has been stated by the Leader of the Opposition, we pay for workmen's compensation. If you follow the miners' agreement, it comes in the item "Other costs," and I find that we pay something over 3d. a ton; so that we are paying under that head for workmen's compensation, and if this is a Bill on a con tributary basis, at least we are entitled to benefit from both sources for which we pay. That is our claim, and, there should be no objection on the part of the Government to our getting both benefits for which we have paid. It may be said, on the other hand, "Surely you do not want to put a child who has lost his father through an accident in a better position than a child who has lost his father through illness?" That is a sound reason, and if the benefits under this Bill were large enough to put a child in security, I would agree with that, but no one can pretend that 3s. a week insufficient to sustain a child. The hon. Member said 15 per cent., which, on a sovereign, is 3s. a week. In present circumstances, we have many men who are not earning £1 a week, owing to short time and other difficulties. Adding the two amounts together, it would be only 6s. a week, and, on grounds of equity no one can pretend that the child is getting more than sufficient to sustain life. I am still under the belief that the Clause has never been gone into thoroughly by the Government. I do hope, in the face of the Opposition, and in the face of the arguments we are putting forward, they will take it back and consider it, and if they cannot go the whole way, they ought to provide, at least, that the child shall not be driven down to 3s. a week. Make it something more than 3s. a week, and I should see some reason for the Clause being put in, but, as it stands, the Minister would be well-advised to withdraw it, and let us deal with the matter in some other way.
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