14 & 15 GEORGE 5, CHAPTER 38.

period in each of two consecutive years, and who for a substantial part of the period during which he was not so employed in each such year was not so employed for some reason other than incapacity for work due to some specific disease or bodily or mental disablement of which notice has been given within the prescribed time or inability to obtain employment within the meaning of this Act, shall be deemed to be a voluntary contributor.

(3) In calculating arrears of contributions, no account shall be taken of arrears accruing

(a) during any period during which the person in question was incapable of work by reason of some specific disease or of bodily or mental disablement of which notice was given within the prescribed time; or

(b) in the case of a woman who is herself an insured person, during two weeks before and four weeks after her confinement, or in the case of maternity benefit payable in respect of the posthumous child of an insured person, during the period subsequent to the father's death.

16. SPECIAL PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO CONTRIBUTORS ENTITLED TO COMPENSATION OR DAMAGES.-(1) Where an insured person has received or recovered or is entitled to receive or recover, whether from his employer or any other person, any compensation or damages under the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1906 (6 Edw. 7, c. 58), as amended by any subsequent enactment, or under any scheme certified thereunder, or under the Employers' Liability Act, 1880 (43 & 44. Vict. c. 42), or at common law, in respect of any injury or disease, the following provisions shall have effect:

(a) No sickness benefit or disablement benefit shall be paid to the insured person in respect of that injury or disease in any case where any weekly sum or the weekly value of any lump sum paid or payable by way of compensation or damages is equal to or greater than the benefit otherwise payable to that person, and where any such weekly sum or the weekly value of any such lump sum is less than the benefit in question, such part only of the benefit shall be paid as, together with the weekly sum or the weekly value of the lump sum, will be equal to the benefit: (b) The weekly value of any such lump sum as aforesaid may, subject to the provisions of this Act relating to the decision of disputes between insured persons and approved societies or insurance committees, be determined by the society or committee by which the sickness and disablement benefits payable to the insured person are administered:

(c) Where an agreement is made as to the amount of any such compensation as aforesaid and the amount agreed is less than fifteen shillings a week, or as to the redemption of a weekly payment by a lump sum under the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1906, as amended by any subsequent enactment, the employer shall, within three days thereafter or such longer time as may be prescribed, send to the Minister or to the society or committee concerned notice in writing of the agreement giving the prescribed particulars thereof, and proviso (d) to paragraph (9) of the Second Schedule to the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1906 (which relates to the powers of registrars of county courts to refuse to record memoranda of agreements and to refer the matter to the judge), shall, in cases where the workman is an insured person, apply to agreements as to the amount of compensation in like manner as to agreements as to the redemption of weekly payments by lump sums.

(2) Where an insured person has recovered compensation in respect of any injury or disease and in fixing the amount of the weekly payment regard was had to any such payment, allowance or benefit as is mentioned in paragraph (3) of the First Schedule to the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1906, or where an insured person who is entitled to receive or recover, but has not received or recovered, any such compensation is in receipt of any such payment, allowance or benefit, as aforesaid, the weekly value of that payment, allowance or benefit, as determined by the society

NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE ACT, 1924.

or committee, or in the case of a dispute as determined in manner provided by this Act, shall, in computing under the foregoing subsection of this section what part of the benefit is to be paid to the insured person, be added to the weekly sum payable by way of compensation or be treated as being a weekly sum payable by way of compensation, as the case may be, and taken into account accordingly :

Provided that no account shall be taken of any such payment, allowance or benefit so far as the weekly value thereof together with the weekly sum, if any, or the weekly value of the lump sum, if any, paid or payable by way of compensation, exceeds the amount of the weekly payment which the insured person would, if there had been no such payment, allowance or benefit, have been entitled to receive or recover by way of compensation under the said Act.

(3) Where an insured person appears to be entitled to any such compensation or damages as aforesaid and unreasonably refuses or neglects to take proceedings to enforce his claim, it shall be lawful for the society or committee concerned, either

(a) at its own expense, to take such proceedings in the name and on behalf of the insured person, in which case any compensation or damages recovered shall be held by the society or committee as trustee for the insured person;

or

(b) to withhold payment of any benefit to which but for this section the insured person would be entitled.

In the event of the society or committee concerned taking proceedings as aforesaid and failing in the proceedings, it shall be responsible for the costs of the proceedings as if it were claiming on its own account.

(4) Nothing in this section shall prevent the society or committee from paying benefit to an insured person by way of advance pending the settlement of his claim for compensation or damages, and any advance so made shall, without prejudice to any other method of recovery, be recoverable by deductions from or suspension of any benefits which may subsequently become payable to the insured person.

(5) Where any society or committee in pursuance of the last preceding subsection has made or intends to make advances to an insured person the society or committee may give notice thereof in the prescribed form to the person liable to pay the compensation or damages, and if such notice is given the person so liable shall, notwithstanding anything in the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1906, on demand and on being furnished with the prescribed proof of the amount of the advances made, repay to the society or committee, up to the amount which he is liable to pay as compensation or damages, less such part, if any, of that amount as he has already duly paid at the time of receiving the notice aforesaid, the amount advanced, and the receipt of the society or committee shall, up to the amount of the repayment, be a full and valid discharge to him in respect of the compensation or damages payable by him to the insured person:

Provided that, if the person so liable to pay compensation or damages gives to the society or committee by which such notice as aforesaid is given notice in the prescribed form that he intends to pay or that he has paid compensation or damages, he shall not be under any obligation to make any repayment in respect of any advance made after the date of the payment of the compensation or damages or after the time at which the notice so given by him is received by the society or committee, whichever is the later.

(6) Where any pension, grant or allowance has been granted to any insured person in pursuance of the Injuries in War (Compensation) Act, 1914 (4 & 5 Geo. 5, c. 30), or the Injuries in War Compensation Act, 1914 (Session 2) (5 & 6 Geo. 5, c. 18), or the Injuries in War (Compensation) Act, 1915 (5 & 6 Geo. 5, c. 24), or any similar Act with respect to which regulations made with the consent of the Treasury provide that this subsection shall apply, or in pursuance of any scheme for compensation in respect of persons injured on any merchant ship or fishing vessel in connection with which any Government obligations within the meaning of the Government War Obligations Act, 1915 (5 & 6 Geo. 5, c. 96), are incurred, then as from the

14 & 15 GEORGE 5, CHAPTER 38.

prescribed date that pension, grant or allowance shall, for the purposes of this section, be treated as if it were compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1906.

17. PROVISIONS IN CASE OF CONTRIBUTORS WHO ARE INMATES OF HOSPITALS, &c. -(1) No payment—

(a) on account of sickness or disablement benefit in respect of any period when the insured person is an inmate of any workhouse, hospital, asylum, convalescent home or infirmary, supported by any public authority or out of any public funds or by a charity or voluntary subscriptions; or (b) on account of maternity benefit in respect of the confinement of a woman where the woman is at the time of the confinement such an inmate as aforesaid;

shall be made during any period when the insured person or the woman, as the case may be, is such an inmate as aforesaid.

(2) During the period aforesaid, the sum which would but for the provisions of the preceding subsection have been payable on account of any benefit to any person(a) If that person has any dependants, may at the discretion of the society or committee administering the benefit, but after consultation whenever possible with that person, be applied wholly or in part for the advantage of, or be paid wholly or in part to, those dependants; and

(b) So far as not applied under the preceding provision, or if that person has no dependants, and if in any case he so authorises, may be applied at the discretion of the society or committee administering the benefit towards defraying any expenses for which he may be or become liable otherwise than to the institution while he is such an inmate as aforesaid, and in so far as not so applied may, at the discretion of the society or committee, be paid in whole or in part to the institution of which he is an inmate, unless that institution is a workhouse, poor law infirmary, asylum or other similar institution, maintained out of public funds : Provided that

(i) If such an inmate as aforesaid is a married woman or a widow and the sums so payable or applicable as aforesaid include the sums which would have been payable both on account of the second maternity benefit and on account of maternity benefit to which she is otherwise entitled under this Act, no part of the sum which would otherwise be payable on account of that last-mentioned maternity benefit shall be paid to or applied for the relief or maintenance of her dependants, but the whole or any part thereof may be paid to the institution of which she is an inmate in the same manner as if she had no dependants :

(ii) Any person who is entitled to any benefit under this Act shall not, if he applies for admission to any workhouse infirmary be refused admission thereto solely on the grounds of the right to that benefit.

(3) Any sum which but for the provisions of this section would have been payable to any person on account of sickness, disablement or maternity benefit shall, if and so far as it is not paid or applied during such a period as aforesaid in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this section, be paid in cash to that person after he has left the institution, and either in a lump sum or in instalments at the discretion of the society or committee administering the benefit, or if he dies in the institution shall be deemed to form part of his estate.

(4) Where any sum which, but for the provisions of this section, would have been payable on account of sickness or disablement benefit has been paid or applied in accordance with those provisions, that sum shall be treated as a payment in respect of sickness or disablement benefit, as the case may be.

may

18. POWER TO VARY BENEFITS IN CERTAIN CASES.-(1) Any approved society submit to the Minister a scheme for substituting any of the additional benefits for sickness benefit and disablement benefit or either of those benefits or any part thereof.

NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE ACT, 1924.

(2) Any such scheme may provide as respects the members of the society to whom the scheme applies that sickness benefit or disablement benefit or both such benefits shall be abolished or the rate thereof reduced or, in the case of sickness benefit, the commencement thereof postponed, and may contain such incidental and consequential provisions as appear necessary for adapting the other provisions of this Act to the members to whom the scheme applies.

(3) A scheme made under this section shall apply either to all members of the society or to any specified class thereof or to any members of the society who may elect to come under the scheme, according as may be provided by the scheme.

(4) A scheme made under this section shall not have any effect unless and until confirmed by the Minister, and the Minister shall not confirm any such scheme unless satisfied that the value of the additional benefits conferred by the scheme is equivalent to the value of the benefits for which they are substituted, and that, in view of the special circumstances of the members or class of members intended to come under the scheme, there is good reason for substituting the additional benefits conferred by the scheme for the benefits for which they are substituted.

(5) Nothing in this section or in any scheme made thereunder shall affect the amount of any reserve value to be credited to a society in respect of a member.

19. PROVISION IN CASE OF PERSONS RESIDENT OUTSIDE THE UNITED KINGDOM.(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, a person shall not be entitled to any benefit during any period when he is resident, whether temporarily or permanently, outside the United Kingdom:

Provided that-

(a) in the case of a person temporarily resident in the Irish Free State, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, this section shall not operate so as to disentitle him to sickness, disablement or maternity benefit, and any such benefit shall be payable by the society or out of the fund by or out of which it would have been payable if the insured person had continued to reside in the United Kingdom; and

(b) where provision has been made by legislative enactment in the Isle of Man or in the Channel Islands for the establishment therein of any scheme of national health insurance, the Joint Committee, with the consent of the Treasury, may by regulations make arrangements for enabling persons entitled to receive benefits under this Act to receive such benefits while resident in the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, as the case may be, and for enabling persons entitled to receive benefits under the scheme of national health insurance in the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, as the case may be, to receive such benefits while resident in the United Kingdom; and

(c) if with the consent of the society or committee by which benefit is administered a person is temporarily resident outside the United Kingdom elsewhere than in the Irish Free State, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, the society or committee may allow him, while so resident, to continue to receive sickness or disablement benefit.

(2) Provision may be made by regulations for directing that this Act shall, in relation to or in connection with any persons affected by any arrangements made under proviso (b) to subsection (1) of this section, apply subject to such modifications and adaptations as may be prescribed by the regulations and may make provision for any necessary financial adjustments.

20. MUTUAL ARRANGEMENTS BETWEEN UNITED KINGDOM AND IRISH FREE STATE. (1) If the Joint Committee and the Irish Insurance Commissioners enter into arrangements—

(a) for securing continuity of insurance of persons who being insured in one country are or become resident and employed in the other country (including the insurance of men serving in the naval, military or air forces, who previously to enrolment or enlistment in any such forces were resident in any part of Ireland other than Northern Ireland, and of men who having

14 & 15 GEORGE 5, CHAPTER 38.

so served within six months after their discharge from any such forces become resident in the Irish Free State);

(b) for securing exemption from liability to make contributions in the case of persons who being ordinarily resident and not insured in one country become temporarily employed in the other;

(c) with respect to the insurance of persons who, being resident in Northern Ireland, are employed either temporarily or permanently in the Irish Free State, or who, being resident in the Irish Free State, are employed either temporarily or permanently in Northern Ireland ;

(d) in the case of a ship registered in one country, the owner of which resides or has his principal place of business in the other, for determining whether contributions payable in respect of the persons employed on the ship are to be payable under the enactments relating to national health insurance in force in the country in which the ship is registered or under the enactments relating to national health insurance in force in the country in which the owner resides or has his principal place of business;

(e) for rendering insurable persons who would have been insurable under the enactments repealed by this Act had those enactments continued to apply to the whole of the United Kingdom as a single unit, but who, in consequence of the passing of the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act, 1922 (12 Geo. 5, c. 4), and the Irish Free State Constitution Act, 1922 (Session 2) (13 Geo. 5, c. 1), are insurable neither under this Act nor under the enactments relating to national health insurance in force in the Irish Free State; the Joint Committee shall make such orders as may be necessary to carry out any such arrangements, and may by any such order make such modifications in this Act as may be necessary to give effect to the arrangements, and for enabling such financial adjustments to be made as may be necessary or expedient in consequence of any such arrangements:

Provided that such an order shall not come into force unless and until the Joint Committee are satisfied that reciprocal provisions having the force of law in the Irish Free State have been made for carrying the arrangements into effect in the Irish Free State, and shall continue in force only so long as the reciprocal provisions continue to have the force of law in the Irish Free State.

(2) An order under this section may provide that where an owner of a ship registered in the United Kingdom does not reside or have his principal place of business in the United Kingdom, the agent in the United Kingdom of the owner shall for the purposes of this Act be deemed to be the employer of the master and members of the crew of the ship.

(3) For the purposes of this section, where there is more than one owner of a ship, the managing owner or manager shall be deemed to be the owner.

(4) In this section the expression "country" means either the United Kingdom or the Irish Free State.

21. BENEFITS TO BE INALIENABLE.-Every assignment of or charge on, and every agreement to assign or charge, any benefits shall be void, and, on the bankruptcy of any person entitled to any benefit, the benefit shall not pass to any trustee or other person acting on behalf of his creditors.

22. RULES OF APPROVED SOCIETIES WITH RESPECT TO ADMINISTRATION OF BENEFITS. (1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, an approved society may, with the consent of the Minister, make rules with regard to the manner and time of paying or distributing and the mode of calculating benefits, suspension of benefits, notices and proof of disease or disablement, behaviour during disease or disablement, and the visiting of sick or disabled persons, and for the infliction and enforcement of penalties (whether by way of fines or suspension of benefits or otherwise) in the case of any member being an insured person who is guilty of any breach of any such rule, or of any imposition or attempted imposition in respect of any benefit under this Act: