The consideration of the Insurance Bill in Committee was resumed
by the House of Commons on Monday, when further amendments to the eighth clause, which lays down the nature of the benefits, were considered. An important concession was made with regard to maternity benefits. As the Act was originally drafted a maternity benefit of thirty shillings was to be paid to the wife of an insured person who was not her- self insured as well as to a woman who was herself insured. A hardship would consequently result in cases where both the woman and her husband were insured, for in that case only a single benefit would be granted for the double premium. Mr. Lloyd George consequently proposed an amendment to the effect that in such cases the insured wife of an insured husband should receive sickness benefit in addition to maternity benefit. While making this concession Mr. Lloyd George rejected as impracticable all other extensions of the maternity benefit, and moreover refused to extend this con- cession to cases where the woman was unmarried, on the ground that the Insurance Scheme could not bear so great a financial strain.
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