National Health Insurance Act 1924
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1924 c. 38 |
National Health Insurance Act, 1924.
(14 & 15 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 38.
An Act to consolidate the enactments relating to National Health Insurance.
[7th August 1924]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I.
Insured Persons and Benefits.
Insured Persons.
1 Insured persons.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, all persons of the age of sixteen and upwards who are employed within the meaning of this Act shall be, and any such persons who are not so employed but who possess the qualifications hereinafter in this section mentioned may be, insured in manner provided in this Act, and all persons so insured (in this Act referred to as ‘insured persons’) shall be entitled in the manner provided by, and subject to the conditions contained in, this Act to the benefits in respect of health insurance and prevention of sickness conferred by this Act.
(2) The persons employed within the meaning of this Act (in this Act referred to as ‘employed contributors’) shall include all persons of either sex, whether British subjects or not, who are engaged in any of the employments specified in Part I. of the First Schedule to this Act, not being employments specified in Part II. of that Schedule:
Provided that, subject to the approval of the Treasury, provision may be made by special order for including among the persons employed within the meaning of this Act any persons engaged in any of the excepted employments specified in Part II. of the said Schedule, either unconditionally or subject to such conditions as may be specified in the order.
(3) The persons not employed within the meaning of this Act who are entitled to be insured persons (in this Act referred to as ‘voluntary contributors’) include, subject to the provisions of this Act, the following persons, that is to say:—
(a ) All persons who, having been employed within the meaning of this Act and insured as employed contributors for a period whether continuous or not of one hundred and four weeks or upwards, have ceased to be so employed and who give notice within the prescribed time and in the prescribed manner that they desire to become voluntary contributors:
(b ) All persons engaged in any excepted employment as respects whom the Minister is satisfied that in the special circumstances they should be allowed to be voluntary contributors:
(c ) All persons who were at the commencement of this Act by virtue of the enactments repealed by this Act entitled to be voluntary contributors under those enactments, and have since that date continued to be insured persons.
2 Exempt persons.
(1) Where any person employed within the meaning of this Act proves that he—
(a ) is in receipt of any pension or income of the annual value of twenty-six pounds or upwards not dependent on his personal exertions; or
(b ) is ordinarily and mainly dependent for his livelihood on some other person; or
(c ) is ordinarily and mainly dependent for his livelihood on the earnings derived by him from an occupation which is not employment within the meaning of this Act; or
(d ) has not been employed within the meaning of this Act for the prescribed number of weeks during any prescribed period;
he shall be entitled to a certificate exempting him from the liability to be insured under this Act.
(2) All claims for exemption shall be made to, and certificates of exemption granted by, the Minister in the prescribed manner and subject to the prescribed conditions, and, if so prescribed, any such claims may be made to, and any such certificates may be granted by, approved societies and insurance committees.
(3) A person holding a certificate of exemption under this section is in this Act referred to as ‘an exempt person.’
3 Position of insured persons ceasing to be employed or to pay contributions as voluntary contributors.
(1) Where an insured person, being an employed contributor and a member of an approved society, ceases to be employed within the meaning of this Act, he shall, for a period of twelve months commencing next after the end of the contribution week in which he ceased to be so employed, for all purposes be treated as if he were an employed contributor insured under this Act:
Provided that—
(a ) Where any such person ceased to be employed as aforesaid by reason of entering on some prescribed class of occupation in connection with the late war, not being employment within the meaning of this Act (in this section referred to as ‘war occupation’) he shall, subject to such conditions with respect to payment of contributions and otherwise as may be prescribed, remain an insured person until two months after the termination of the war occupation, or until the expiration of twelve months from the date on which he ceased to be employed as aforesaid, whichever date is the later; and
(b ) If any such person is a person receiving training, whether in technical institutions or otherwise, under any Order in Council, Royal Warrant, or order relating to pensions granted to persons in respect of disablement in consequence of the late war, the period during which he is to remain an insured person shall, subject to such conditions with respect to payment of contributions and otherwise as may be prescribed, be extended for such period as may be prescribed.
(2) A voluntary contributor being a member of an approved society shall, for a period of twelve months commencing next after the end of the contribution week in respect of which the last contribution paid by him as a voluntary contributor was paid, be treated as if he were a voluntary contributor insured under this Act.
(3) In calculating for the purposes of this section the said period of twelve months no account shall be taken of any period during which the person who has so ceased to be employed or to pay contributions is rendered incapable of work by reason of some specific disease or by bodily or mental disablement of which notice is given within the prescribed time, or of any period after a person has attained the age of seventy years, or in the case of a woman who is an insured person, of the period of four weeks after her confinement.
(4) Where any person has ceased to be an insured person he shall, if he subsequently becomes employed within the meaning of this Act, be treated as if he had not previously been an insured person.
Contributions.
4 Contributions by insured persons, employers, and the Treasury.
4. Except as otherwise provided by this Act and subject to the provisions of section one of the National Insurance Act, 1913, the funds required for defraying the cost of the benefits conferred by this Act and the expenses of the administration of those benefits shall be derived as to seven-ninths thereof from contributions made by or in respect of the contributors by themselves or their employers, and as to the remaining two-ninths thereof from moneys provided by Parliament.
5 Rates of contribution.
(1) The contributions payable under this Act in respect of employed contributors shall be at the rate set out in the Second Schedule to this Act (in this Act referred to as ‘the employed rate’), and shall comprise contributions by the contributors and contributions by their employers at the rates specified in that Schedule.
(2) The contributions payable by voluntary contributors shall be at the employed rate:
Provided that, in the case of a voluntary contributor resident in Great Britain who is not entitled to receive medical benefit, the weekly contribution which would otherwise have been payable shall be reduced by twopence, and there shall be credited to the society of which the contributor is a member, or, if he is a deposit contributor, to the Deposit Contributors Fund, the difference between the amount of the contributions actually paid by him at the reduced rate and the amount which would have been paid if those contributions had been at the full rate, and the amount of that difference shall be treated as having been expended on benefits, and the proper proportion thereof shall accordingly be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament.
(3) Where it is proved to the satisfaction of the Minister that a trade or business carried on by any employer is of a seasonal nature and subject to periodical fluctuation, and that the employer systematically employs persons throughout the year and works short time during the season when the trade or business is depressed, provision may be made by special order for reducing, as respects those persons, the employed rate and the contributions payable by the employer and contributors to such extent and for such period in the year as may be specified in the order, and for increasing the rate and contributions to a corresponding extent and for a corresponding period during the remainder of the year, and the order may contain such incidental, supplemental and consequential provisions as may appear necessary for adapting the other provisions of this Act to cases under this subsection.
6 Liability of employer to pay contribution in respect of exempt person.
(1) The employer of an exempt person shall be liable to pay the employer's contributions in respect of him in the same manner as if that person had been an employed contributor, and contributions so payable shall, in the case of a master or seaman serving on a foreign-going ship, be at the rate which would have been...
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