asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if he will state whether he proposes to take steps to see that persons who were formerly entitled to all the benefits of the National Health Insurance and the Widows' and Orphans' Pensions Acts will not be deprived of any of the benefits of these Acts because of increases in salaries and wages granted for the express purpose of meeting the increase in the cost of living.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Benefits Under Social Services.
Increases in salaries and wages of manual workers do not affect their insurability under the National Health Insurance and Widows' and Orphans' Pensions Acts, and consequently their entitlement to benefit. Persons in non-manual employment whose remuneration is increased above the level of £250 per annum cease to be compulsorily insurable under these Acts. They have it in their own power, however, to continue to be entitled to the benefits of the Acts by electing to exercise their right to become voluntary contributors.
I should mention that a person who ceases to be compulsorily insurable remains in insurance for 18 months from the date of his last stamp and I have no doubt that the new Minister for Social Welfare will give special consideration to the position of such persons in his review of the schemes generally, including the question of raising the insurability limit for non-manual classes.
Is the Minister not aware that that means that the standard of living of persons that brought them within the scope of these Insurance Acts has been radically changed and will he not take that into consideration in reviewing the matter and raise the maximum income of persons engaged in employment, other than manual workers, so that they can remain fully within the insurance scheme, as they were before?
As I see it, the Deputy's question suggests that persons whose income was formerly under £250 per annum now get more than £250 per annum. The common presumption is that a person's standard of living increases with his income.
Is the Minister not aware that the question refers to the increases given in wages in order to meet the rise in the cost of living and does he not realise that what is happening at the present time is that persons of a particular standard of living are being brought from under the scope of these Insurance Acts and are therefore losing their benefits simply because the cost of living has risen?
The Deputy's reasoning is tortuous but neither accurate nor conclusive.
You are quite wrong. The Deputy is perfectly right. You are entirely ignorant of the facts.